Wheeler v. Commonwealth

395 S.W.2d 565, 1964 Ky. LEXIS 533
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedApril 17, 1964
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 395 S.W.2d 565 (Wheeler v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wheeler v. Commonwealth, 395 S.W.2d 565, 1964 Ky. LEXIS 533 (Ky. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

DAVIS, Commissioner.

Charles Virgil Wheeler seeks reversal of his conviction in the Fayette Circuit Court of the offense of aiding and abetting an unknown person commit the crime of armed assault with intent to rob. Appellant has been sentenced to imprisonment for twenty-one years upon the jury’s verdict of his guilt of the offense. KRS 433.150.

Appellant rests his appeal upon four claimed errors: (1) the indictment was defective for failure to name the principal or give a description of his acts or participation in the crime charged; (2) there was a fatal variance between the allegations of the indictment and the proof; (3) appellant was denied the constitutionally guaranteed speedy trial; and (4) the evidence does not support the verdict.

On September 8, 1961, T. E. King was on duty as night auditor and desk clerk at Springs Motel at Lexington. About 5:30 a. m., he responded to a knock at the door, and unlocked the door to admit a man who told him he wished to pay his bill and check out of the motel. King then locked the door, leaving the key in it, and started to go behind the desk to attend the matter of [567]*567checking out the “guest” when the latter put a .45 automatic pistol in King’s hack. King then understandably responded to the commands of the intruder; King was required to lie face down upon the floor of the dining room. The intruder, whose identity has never come to light, placed napkins across King’s mouth, and tied King’s hands and feet. Just prior to tying King, the intruder kicked him in the face and directed him to lie in such manner as his face would be flat on the floor.

King testified that he heard noises from the motel lobby indicating the prizing open of the cash register and some cabinets in the office. After about five minutes a man came in and kneeled down behind King and asked him whether he was all right; upon King’s telling him that he was all right, this man reached into King’s pocket and removed his card case — there was no money in it. Then the man told King: “You lay there and nothing will happen to you.” King then heard “them” take a crowbar “or something” and prize open a cash register in the dining room, just behind where he lay; then the intruders left. King was easily able to free himself, and immediately telephoned the police. The officers reached the scene about five or ten minutes later.

Examination of the motel premises by the police revealed that checks and cash aggregating about $900 had been taken. King did not know, nor was he ever able to identify the first man who came in the motel office. However, he told the police that the man who had asked him whether he was all right was the appellant. King explained that he had known appellant as a frequent guest at another motel during times of King’s employment there. He asserted that he was quite familiar with the voice of appellant, and that he recognized appellant as the man who had spoken to him and removed the card case from his pocket. At the trial King said that appellant’s voice is distinctive and that he had no doubt of the accuracy of his identification. It developed that King had not talked with appellant for about one year before the robbery. On the next day after the robbery, King identified a photograph of appellant at the Lexington police station.

At 11:40 p. m. on September 8, 1961 (the day of the robbery), appellant was arrested at Ashland while aboard a train bound for Columbus, Ohio. Search of appellant was made incident to that arrest; in his billfold were found two checks, each of which was shown to have been among the articles taken from the Springs Motel in the robbery just described. The checks were in sums of $6.18 and $97.00, respectively. Appellant claims that he acquired the checks, with some others, at about 3:00 or 3:30 p. m. September 8, 1961, from a man he named as either James Lawson or James Lawrence —he was not sure which. Appellant said that he cashed checks in the total sum of about $186 for Lawson-Lawrence at a restaurant in Portsmouth, Ohio, on the occasion mentioned. He offered no plausible explanation as to the absence of an endorsement of Lawson-Lawrence on the checks. Appellant’s own evidence, supported by testimony from his wife, tended to establish an alibi. He insisted that he was in Huntington, W. Va., at the time of the robbery, and had not been in Lexington for four or five months before the robbery date.

The indictment was returned by the Fayette County grand jury October 11, 1962, and in pertinent part is as follows:

“The Grand Jury * * * accuses Charles Virgil Wheeler of the crime of unlawfully, maliciously and feloniously aiding and abetting a person unknown to this Grand Jury in an unlawful, malicious and felonious assault with an offensive weapon upon T. E. King with the felonious intent to rob the said T. E. King committed as follows, viz: That said person unknown to this Grand Jury * * * did with an offensive weapon, to-wit a pistol, unlawfully, maliciously and feloniously make an assault upon T. E. King, with [568]*568the felonious intent then and there to rob him, the said T. E. King of money or property of value, and that the said Charles Virgil Wheeler was then and there present at the time of said assault and did unlawfully, wilfully and felo-niously aid, abet, advise, counsel and encourage the said person whose name is unknown to this Grand Jury in the commission of said crime * * * ”

Appellant asserts that failure to name the principal offender is a fatal deficiency in the indictment. In support of his contention he relies on Mulligan v. Com., 84 Ky. 229, 1 S.W. 417, and Christian v. Com., Ky., 255 S.W.2d 998. In Howard v. Com., 110 Ky. 356, 61 S.W. 756, it was noted that the principle enunciated in the Mulligan case was subject to the reasonable exception that is presented here. The Howard case specifically recognized the validity of an indictment naming an unknown principal. Smith v. Com., 262 Ky. 6, 89 S.W.2d 3, stands for the same proposition. We conclude there is no merit in this phase of appellant’s contentions.

The related attack on the indictment also fails. Appellant contends that the indictment does not sufficiently detail the activities of the unknown principal to satisfy the requirements of Sections 122(2) and 124(4) of the Criminal Code, in effect when the indictment was presented. As frequently pointed out, the object of the indictment under the former Criminal Code is to inform the defendant of the offense with which he stands charged; this may be done by a statement of the acts constituting the offense in such manner as to enable a person of common understanding to know what is intended, and with such degree of certainty as to enable the court to pronounce judgment on conviction, according to the right of the case. Smith v. Com., 262 Ky. 6, 89 S.W.2d 3. The quoted language of the indictment adequately recites the description of the acts of the unknown principal as well as the conduct of the accused appellant.

The position is taken that since the indictment charges that the crime was committed with the intent to rob T. E. King of money or property, there was a fatal variance when the evidence reflected that the items taken were assets of Springs Motel.

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Related

Wolbrecht v. Commonwealth
955 S.W.2d 533 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 1997)
Bailey v. Commonwealth
483 S.W.2d 112 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1972)
Moore v. Commonwealth
446 S.W.2d 271 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976), 1969)
Little v. Commonwealth
438 S.W.2d 527 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976), 1969)
Cissell v. Commonwealth
419 S.W.2d 555 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976), 1967)
Wheeler v. Commonwealth
395 S.W.2d 569 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976), 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
395 S.W.2d 565, 1964 Ky. LEXIS 533, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wheeler-v-commonwealth-kyctapp-1964.