State v. Turley

• Decision Date: 01 February 1898
• Citation: 142 Mo. 403,44 S.W. 267
• Parties: STATE v. TURLEY.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

44 S.W. 267

142 Mo. 403

STATE v. TURLEY.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

February 1, 1898.

FALSE PRETENSES — INDICTMENT — SUFFICIENCY — CORPORATIONS — EVIDENCE — CRIMINAL LAW — APPEAL.

1. An indictment alleging that defendant, with intent to defraud, did feloniously make certain false pretenses, is not insufficient, as failing to allege that defendant feloniously intended to defraud.

2. An indictment for making false pretenses to a corporation need not allege that the representations were made to any person connected with the corporation.

3. An accused complaining of error in the admission of evidence must point out what evidence was improperly admitted.

4. On a prosecution for obtaining goods by false pretenses, evidence of other efforts made at about the same time to obtain goods of other merchants upon like pretenses is admissible to show intent.

5. Where accused purchases goods belonging to a corporation on credit by making false pretenses as to his financial standing to its credit clerk, who has authority to make sales, he obtains goods from the corporation by false pretenses.

Appeal from criminal court, Greene county; C. B. McAfee, Judge.

E. H. Turley was convicted of obtaining property by fraudulent pretenses, and he appeals. Affirmed.

Francis M. Wolf, for appellant. Edward C. Crow, Atty. Gen., and Saml. B. Jeffries, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

BURGESS, J.

At the July term, 1897, of the Greene county criminal court, defendant was convicted of obtaining certain personal property of the alleged value of $63, by fraud and fraudulent pretenses, from the Springfield Stove Works, in said county, and his punishment fixed at two years' imprisonment in the penitentiary. From the judgment and sentence, he appeals.

The material parts of the indictment are as follows: "The grand jurors of the state of Missouri, impaneled, sworn, and charged to inquire within and for the body of Greene county, upon their oath present that one E. H. Turley, late of the county and state aforesaid, on or about the 9th day of September, 1896, at the county of Greene and state of Missouri, then and there contriving, designing, and intending to cheat and defraud the Springfield Stove Works, a corporation duly organized and incorporated under the laws of the state of Missouri, of goods, wares, and merchandise, did apply to and request the said Springfield Stove Works to sell him, the said E. H. Turley, certain goods, wares, and merchandise on credit, and to induce the said Springfield Stove Works to sell him, the said E. H. Turley, said goods, wares, and merchandise on credit; and, to effect his said design and intent to cheat and defraud the said Springfield Stove Works, he, the said E. H. Turley, did then and there unlawfully, designedly, feloniously, and falsely represent, pretend, and state to the said Springfield Stove Works that he, the said E. H. Turley, was then and there the owner, in his own name, above all exemptions and liabilities, of a stock of goods, wares, and merchandise, a more particular description to these grand jurors being unknown, in the town of Ascott, in the county of Douglas, and in the state of Missouri, of the aggregate value of three thousand dollars; and the said Springfield Stove Works, believing said false pretenses and false representations so made as aforesaid, by the said E. H. Turley, to be true, and being deceived thereby, was induced, by reason thereof, to then and there sell and deliver to the said E. H. Turley the following goods, wares, and merchandise, to wit, * * * all being of the aggregate value of sixty-three dollars, of the goods and personal property of the said Springfield Stove Works, which the said E. H. Turley agreed and promised to pay for; and that the said E. H. Turley, by means of the false pretenses and representations so made as aforesaid, unlawfully, feloniously, and designedly did obtain and receive of and from the said Springfield Stove Works the goods, wares, and merchandise above mentioned, with the intent it, the said Springfield Stove Works, then and there to cheat and defraud the same; whereas, in truth and in fact, the said E. H. Turley was not then and there the owner in his own name, above all exemptions and liabilities, of a stock of goods, wares, and merchandise in the town of Ascott, Douglas county, Missouri, of the aggregate value of three thousand dollars, as so falsely represented by him, the said E. H. Turley, to the said Springfield Stove Works, as aforesaid, which he, the said E. H. Turley, then and there well knew, — against the peace and dignity of the state." The facts are about as follows: At the time of the alleged offense, defendant was doing a small retail mercantile business at Ascott, in Douglas county, Mo. On the 9th day of September, 1896, he went to the office of the Springfield Stove Works, a corporation at Springfield, Mo., to buy...