Deemy v. Dist. Court of Dall. Cnty., 41430.
| Decision Date | 14 February 1933 |
| Docket Number | No. 41430.,41430. |
| Citation | 215 Iowa 690,246 N.W. 833 |
| Parties | DEEMY v. DISTRICT COURT OF DALLAS COUNTY ET AL. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Certiorari from District Court, Dallas County; Frank Bechly, Judge.
This is an original action in certiorari, brought in this court by the petitioner, to test the validity of a judgment entered, and sentence pronounced, against him by the respondent, Frank Bechly, Judge in the District Court of Dallas County, on the 20th day of January 1931, in a case therein pending in which the State of Iowa was plaintiff and Clarence Deemy was defendant.
Writ annulled.
E. S. Thayer, of Des Moines, for petitioner.
George H. Sackett, Co. Atty., of Perry, for respondents.
It appears from the return of the writ, issued by this court, that on the 20th day of January, 1931, the county attorney of Dallas county, filed in the office of the clerk of the district court, in said county, a county attorney's information in the following language:
The said information was properly sworn to by the county attorney, and bore the approval of Frank Bechly, as judge of the said district court. To such information the defendant named therein (the petitioner herein) signed a written plea of guilty, which was indorsed upon the back of said information, and was as follows:
“I, Clarence Deemy, the defendant named in the within and foregoing county attorney's information, being fully advised as to the charge therein made, do hereby waive appointment of an attorney in my behalf, waive any and all irregularities in the manner of submitting the evidence of the witnesses with the County Attorney's information, do hereby plead guilty to the charge set forth in said information and ask that I be taken before the court at the earliest possible time and that sentence be pronounced at once, hereby waiving my statutory rights in that regard. Dated this 20 day of January 1931.
Clarence O. Deemy, Defendant.”
There was also indorsed upon the back of said information the following statement signed by the county attorney:
“Evidence. On the 8th day of January, 1931, Clarence Deemy in company with John Campbell and Raymond Ruhs, drove to Perry and went to a place on third street, a short distance from the Jordan Oil Station, with the intention of robbing the attendant of said oil station. That Clarence Deemy was the driver of the car and he stayed in the car with the engine running so that they could make a quick getaway after the robbery. John Campbell and Raymond Ruhs left the car, went to the Jordan Oil Station and robbed the attendant, Ed Jordan, of considerable money. Deemy does not know the exact amount that they obtained but states that he received $20.00 as his share. Ed Jordan, the attendant, states that the boys got about $135.00 to $145.00. One of the boys, John Campbell, had a loaded revolver which he pushed against the ribs of Jordan during the robbery. Clarence Deemy, John Campbell and Raymond Ruhs have each admitted their part in this robbery. Ed Jordan can identify the man who had the gun. The boys have admitted that they burned the checks which they obtained in said robbery. Immediately after the robbery Campbell and Ruhs returned to the car and Deemy drove away.
Sheriff C. A. Knee and Deputy Sheriff L. C. Chase were present and heard the confession by the defendant, Clarence Deemy. Geo. H. Sackett, County Attorney of Dallas County, Iowa.”
On the same day, the defendant was arraigned before the Honorable Frank Bechly, Judge, and the court pronounced the following judgment:
“Judgment. In the District Court of Iowa, in and for Dallas County. 20th day of January, 1931. The State of Iowa against Clarence Deemy, Defendant. No. 2599 Crim. On this day this cause came on to be heard, the State of Iowa appearing by George H. Sackett, County Attorney, and the Defendant appearing in person and enters a written plea of Guilty to the Crime of Robbery with Aggravation as charged in the Indictment by information of County Attorney, waives time allowed by law for pronouncing judgment and asks that judgment be now pronounced.
Thereupon the cause came on for judgment, and the defendant being asked by the Court if he had any legal cause to show why judgment should not be pronounced against him and no such cause being alleged or appearing to the Court, and the Court being fully advised in the premises, doth sentence the defendant, Clarence Deemy, to be imprisoned in the Iowa State Reformatory at Anamosa, Iowa, for a period of Twenty-five years at hard labor.
It is Therefore Considered, Ordered, and Adjudged, by the Court that the defendant, Clarence Deemy, be imprisoned in the Iowa State Reformatory at Anamosa, Iowa, for the period of Twenty-five years at hard labor and that he pay the costs hereof taxed at $19.00 and that a special writ and execution issue accordingly. To all of which the defendant excepts. The defendant's bond on appeal is fixed at $5,000.00.
Signed at the end of the day's proceedings.
[Signed] Frank Bechly, Judge.”
We assume from statements contained in petitioner's brief and argument that mittimus was issued on said judgment, and the petitioner was delivered to, and is now in the custody of the warden at the reformatory at Anamosa.
The petition for the writ issued in this case contains a recitation of the foregoing facts, and alleges that the respondent, Hon. Frank Bechly, Judge, exceeded his proper jurisdiction, and otherwise acted illegally in pronouncing said judgment, and in ordering the imprisonment of the said petitioner, Clarence Deemy, for a period of more than ten years, and asks that the respondent be directed to reduce the term of imprisonment pronounced against the petitioner herein to an indeterminate period not exceeding ten years, or that such correction be made in this court. We have not been favored with any brief or argument on the part of the respondent in this court.
It is the contention of the petitioner that he plead guilty to a charge of robbery, without reference to any of the circumstances of aggravation described in Code, § 13039, and that the record conferred jurisdiction upon the court to pronounce sentence only under Code, § 13040, and in support of such contention the petitioner alleges that the information filed in the lower court did not charge the offense defined in said section 13039 as robbery with aggravation; that his plea of guilty was to the offense of robbery, without reference to either the presence or absence of circumstances of aggravation;...
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