People v. Moceri

• Decision Date: 06 September 1940
• Docket Number: June Term, 1940.,No. 104,104
• Citation: 294 Mich. 483,293 N.W. 727
• Parties: PEOPLE v. MOCERI et al.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

294 Mich. 483

293 N.W. 727

PEOPLE

v.MOCERI et al.

No. 104, June Term, 1940.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Sept. 6, 1940.

Joe Moceri and Charles Ruggerello were convicted of carrying a pistol without a license, in an automobile occupied by them, and Joe Moceri appeals.

Affirmed.

Appeal from Recorder's Court of Detroit.

Argued before the Entire Bench.

Frank S. Valenti, of Detroit (Donald McGaffey, of Detroit, of counsel), for defendant and appellant.

Thomas Read, Atty. Gen., Edmund E. Shepherd, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Duncan C. McCrea, Pros. Atty., and William L. Brunner and Clare L. Randolph, Asst. Pros. Attys., all of Detroit, for the People.

BUSHNELL, Chief Justice.

Defendants were arrested by police officers of the City of Detroit at about 4:30 a. m. on October 22, 1939. At that time, defendant Ruggerello was in a parked car and defendant Moceri was just getting into the car. The attention of the officers was attracted by the fact that the rear license plate of the automobile was covered with a rag and defendants appeared to be intoxicated. They were both arrested. The automobile was searched and a hammer and tire tool were found on the floor of the car in front of the front seat. Defendants were taken to a police station, where further search revealed a pistol on the floor of the car. Moceri told the officers that the gun was his, but when he took the stand in his own behalf he denied that he had ever seen the gun until it was found in the police station. Ruggerello testified that he had found the gun during the course of the evening, but did not remember just where or when, that he laid the gun of the floor of the car, and that Moceri knew nothing about it. Defendants were tried together by the court, sitting without a jury, on an information which charged that they-‘did carry a revolver pistol in a motor vehicle operated and occupied by them, neither of them then and there having a license to so carry said pistol and neither of them being then and there in their dwelling house, place of business or other land possessed by them, contrary to the form of the statute * * *.’

Both were found guilty and each received a sentence of from five months to five years. Defendant Moceri alone appeals.

The statute under which the charge was laid is section 227 of the Penal Code, Act No. 328, Pub.Acts 1931, (Stat.Ann. § 28.424), which reads as follows: ‘Any person who shall carry a dagger, dirk, stiletto or other dangerous weapon except hunting knives adapted and carried as such, concealed on or about his person, or whether concealed or otherwise in any vehicle operated or occupied by him, except in his dwelling house or place of business or on other land possessed by him; and any person who shall carry a pistol concealed on or about his person, or, whether concealed or otherwise,...