State v. Edwards

• Decision Date: 28 March 1892
• Citation: 109 Mo. 315,19 S.W. 91
• Parties: STATE v. EDWARDS.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

19 S.W. 91

109 Mo. 315

STATE v. EDWARDS.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

March 28, 1892.

BURGLARY — ALIBI — INSTRUCTIONS — EVIDENCE.

1. Rev. St. § 3526, defines burglary in the second degree to be the breaking and entering — "second, any shop, store, booth, tent, warehouse, or other building * * * in which there shall be at the time * * * any goods, wares, or merchandise * * * kept or deposited, with intent to steal therein." Held, that a railroad "depot" was included under the general words "other building."

2. On a trial for burglary and larceny, where it appeared that some of the stolen property was found in defendant's possession shortly after the burglary, and defendant introduced evidence to prove an alibi, an instruction that where stolen property is so found, if the possessor fail to account for his possession in a manner consistent with his innocence, he is presumed to be a thief, is not sufficiently comprehensive to include a rebuttal of the presumption of guilt by proof of an alibi.

3. Where defendant's sole defense was an alibi, and he introduced several witnesses, who testified that he was 75 miles distant at the time of the burglary, the court should have charged the jury that, "if they have a reasonable doubt that defendant committed the burglary and larceny alleged in the indictment, or was absent at the time said burglary and larceny is alleged to have been committed, they will find a verdict acquitting him."

Appeal from circuit court, Sullivan county; G. D. BURGESS, Judge.

Conviction of Ulyses W. Edwards for burglary and larceny. Defendant appeals. Reversed.

J. W. Wattenbarger, B. F. Pierce, and Harber & Knight, for appellant. John M. Wood, Atty. Gen., and D. M. Wilson, Pros. Atty., for the State.

MACFARLANE, J.

Defendant was convicted and sentenced by the circuit court of Sullivan county to five years' imprisonment under an indictment for burglary and larceny. The indictment charged that defendant did "break into and enter the depot of the Quincy, Omaha and Kansas City Railway Company in the village of Green Castle, in said county, in which said depot certain goods, wares, and merchandise were then and there kept and deposited, with the intent certain of the said goods, wares, and merchandise then and there so kept and deposited feloniously and burglariously to take, steal, and carry away; and certain of the said goods, wares, and merchandise in said depot then and there so kept and deposited being found, to-wit, two boxes, containing a large quantity of goods and merchandise, a particular description of which said goods and merchandise in the two boxes so contained is to these grand jurors unknown, belonging to the firm of Montgomery, Ward and Company, and of the aggregate value of four hundred and forty-one 36-100 dollars, feloniously and burglariously did then and there take, steal, and carry away, against the peace and dignity of the state." Defendant resided at Moulton, a small town on the Wabash Railroad, 50 miles north of Kirksville, in the state of Iowa. Green Castle is a station on the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City Railway, about 30 miles west of Kirksville, in Sullivan county. The evidence tended to prove that defendant and an accomplice named Record sent an order to Montgomery, Ward & Co., Chicago, for a lot of goods to be shipped to E. B. Forrest at Green Castle. They made a small cash payment, and requested the goods sent to be paid for on delivery. The scheme concocted was to break into the wareroom of the railway company, and steal these goods when they arrived there. These parties remained in the neighborhood of Green Castle a few days, and returned to Moulton. This was the latter part of May, 1890. Soon after two boxes of goods arrived at Green Castle station, consigned to E. B. Forrest, from Montgomery, Ward & Co., Chicago, and were stored in the warehouse of the railroad company. On the night of June 24, 1890, the said wareroom was broken into, and these two boxes of goods, valued at $240, taken therefrom. Next morning the empty boxes were found near by. The evidence further tended to prove that on the 26th of June defendant was seen within two or three miles of Green Castle, having in his possession some of the goods taken from the boxes, and that he returned to his home at Moulton on the morning of the 27th of June. After that he gave his accomplice a portion of the goods, and a portion was found concealed about the premises when defendant was arrested. Witnesses also testified to confessions of the crime in its details made by defendant. Also declarations of defendant that he did commit the burglary, but was not a success as...