Martin v. State, 29338

• Decision Date: 02 April 1957
• Docket Number: No. 29338,29338
• Citation: 236 Ind. 524,141 N.E.2d 107
• Parties: Mick MARTIN, Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee.
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

Page 107

141 N.E.2d 107

236 Ind. 524

Mick MARTIN, Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee.

No. 29338.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

April 2, 1957.

Rehearing Denied April 30, 1957.

Milton Siegel, Indianapolis, for appellant.

Edwin K. Steers, Atty. Gen., Owen S. Boling, Deputy Atty. Gen., for appellee.

EMMERT, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment convicting appellant of robbery, sentencing him to the Indiana State Prison for not less than ten (10) nor more than twenty-five (25) years, and disfranchising him and rendering him incapable of holding any office of trust or profit for ten (10) years. The original affidavit charged the accused and three others as accomplices, but the cases of two were severed for purposes of trial. The errors assigned are the overruling of the accused's motion for new trial and his amended motion for new trial. As the verdict was returned on April 14, 1955, and the amended motion for new trial was not filed until May 16, 1955, all new specifications of error urged in that motion are waived. Kallas v. State, 1949, 227 Ind. 103, 83 N.E.2d 769; Abeele v. Ruse, 1942, 112 Ind.App. 596, 601, 44 N.E.2d 235. The only question not waived is the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict.

The evidence most favorable to the State reveals the following: Shortly after 7:30 A.M., Central Standard Time, on July 26, 1954, the accused and another man were observed coming onto a used car lot at 960 North Meridian Street in Indianapolis by an employee, Mr. Robert Hogan. The second man was identified in court by the witness Hogan as one of the two persons charged in the affidavit but not tried with the accused. Mr. Hogan saw the two men enter the small office on the lot; a few minutes later, hearing a commotion in the office and the manager calling for help, he started toward it. Through a large window in the office he saw the accused 'holding a gun on Mr. Gillis,' the manager. Then a man whom he identified as the co-accused, Sarkozy, came up behind him, thrust a gun into his side and ordered him to move toward the office, which he did. As they approached the office there was a scuffle inside and Mr. Gillis broke out of the office and ran between seveal cars and out of the lot. As he did so the witness noticed a fourth man standing on the sidewalk. The accused 'herded' the witness into the office and stood with the gun pointed at Mr. Hogan without saying anything until suddenly all the intruders broke and ran out of the back of the lot.

Mr. Gillis was unable to identify any of the persons involved. He was seated at his desk completing a contract when two men entered with guns and ordered him to place his wallet, which contained $55, on the desk. They also told him to take off his diamond ring. He replied that he couldn't get if off and 'They said, we have ways of getting it off.' He was told to stand up and then was shoved toward the front of the office. He grabbed for the door and, after a scuffle during which he was hit on the head with a pistol and his shirt was torn, he managed to break out of the door and get away. As he ran he noticed a third man with his employee, Mr. Hogan, and a fourth man on the sidewalk.

At about 8:00 A.M., Central Standard Time, on the same day two police officers of the Indianapolis Police Department were in a 'regular police car' in the vicinity of Victory Field, a ball park some two and one-half to three miles from 960 North Meridian Street, as a result of a complaint that 'there had been a safe job' in that area. They noticed four men walk down the road, then turn off toward a river in the immediate vicinity and disappear over a rise or 'bank.' When the two policemen came over the bank they saw five instead of four men. One came toward...