Schneider v. People, 16023.

Citation199 P.2d 873,118 Colo. 543
Decision Date04 October 1948
Docket Number16023.
PartiesSCHNEIDER v. PEOPLE.
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado

Rehearing Denied Nov. 8, 1948.

Error to District Court, Washington County; Raymond L. Sauter Judge.

Paul J Schneider was convicted of murder in the first degree, and he brings error.

Judgment affirmed.

HAYS and HILLIARD, JJ., dissenting.

J Corder Smith and Royal C. Donnen, both of Fort Morgan, for plaintiff in error.

H Lawrence Hinkley, Atty. Gen., Duke W. Dunbar, Deputy Atty. Gen., and James S. Henderson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendant in error.

ALTER Justice.

In an information filed in the district court of Washington county, Paul J. Schneider was charged with the murder of one Frank J. Ford, on September 20, 1947. Defendant was indigent, and counsel was appointed to defend him. Upon arraignment, defendant entered a plea of not guilty, and not guilty by reason of insanity at the time of the alleged commission of the crime and since.

Upon trial the jury returned a verdict of murder in the first degree and fixed the penalty at death. To review the judgment entered upon that verdict, defendant prosecutes a writ of error.

It appears from the record that upon the entry of the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity at the time of the alleged commission of the crime and since, the court entered an order committing defendant to the State Hospital at Pueblo, Colorado, for observation for the period of a month. Thereafter, and on the 6th day of December, 1947, three of the hospital physicians reported to the court that in their opinion Schneider was not insane at the time of their examination nor was he insane at the time of the alleged commission of the crime.

The case was set for trial on January 19, 1948, at the conclusion of which, on the 23rd day of January, 1948, the jury returned its verdict as noted. Within the time allowed by the court, counsel for defendant filed a motion for a new trial, alleging ten errors committed during the course of the trial. The motion for a new trial was argued on February 13, 1948, at the conclusion of which the court entered an order overruling the motion and pronounced the judgment sought to be reversed here.

The record discloses the following evidence on behalf of the people: On the night of September 20, 1947, Frank J. Ford was operating a filling station owned by himself and son, located on Brighton Boulevard in Denver. Ford usually returned from the filling station at about 11 o'clock P.M., and, when he failed to return at the usual time, Mrs. Ford became alarmed and notified police. Some officers, in response to her call, went to the filling station, found it open and Ford's car there, but Ford was gone, and all of the money in the cash drawer had been removed therefrom, with indications that it had been rifled. From the night of September 20, 1947, nothing was seen or heard of Mr. Ford until his body was discovered in Washington county more than thirty days later.

On the 20th of September, 1947, Ford had in his possession as a cash item a check in the sum of $40.57, payable to the order of Elmer Bloom and drawn on the Central Bank and Trust Company by Reed & Green Planing Mill, which check had been cashed by the payee at Ford's Service Station on the date above mentioned. On October 8, 1947, the Central Bank and Trust Company received the Bloom check for collection from the Pikeville National Bank of Pikeville, Kentucky, bearing the endorsements of Paul Bloom and Paul J. Schneider. The Central Bank and Trust Company honored the check and remitted the amount thereof, less a service charge, to the Kentucky bank. It was known by the officers that the Bloom check was in Ford's possession on September 20, at the time of his disappearance. The Kentucky police officers, cooperating with the Denver police and accompanied by an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who had theretofore been investigating Schneider's activities pertaining to a reportedly stolen automobile, apprehended Schneider when he called at the Pikeville National Bank to receive the proceeds of the Bloom check. Upon being interrogated, he denied all knowledge of Ford and claimed that the check had been given to him by a party in Denver as the purchase price of a radio. Subsequently, and on the morning of October 22, 1947, defendant made a full and complete confession of all of his activities in and around Denver on September 20, 1947, to an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Chief Deputy Sheriff of Pike county, Kentucky. Subsequently he repeated his confession to Captain James Pitt and Detective Joe Holindrake, police officers from Denver, and several citizens from Pikeville, Kentucky. After defendant was returned to Denver, and on October 25, 1947, his confession was repeated in the presence of Captain Pitt, Detective Holindrake, and Sergeant Duffy. All of the officers testified that defendant's confession was free and voluntary, and this is undisputed.

Defendant's confession, as made to these various officers on different occasions, and so far as it pertains to defendant's activities in Denver and subsequent thereto, is substantially as follows:

Defendant stated that the day of Mr. Ford's disappearance, he had arrived in his car in Denver sometime right after noon. He drove around Denver for several hours, looking for a likely place to 'stick up,' and finally decided to leave Denver to go into Nebraska. After dark he drove out Route 6 and passed a filling station and shortly afterward turned around and came back to the filling station. When he returned some of the lights had been turned out, and Ford, who was operating the station, was evidently closing. When he drove in Ford came out, whereupon he pulled his gun on Ford and told him he wanted his money and didn't want any trouble with him. He then got out of the car, went into the office, took Ford's billfold and what money was in the cash register. He wrapped the billfold and money in a cloth found in the filling station, took Ford out and ordered him to drive the car out on Route 6. After thus driving a short distance, he ordered Ford to stop the car, and he then put him in the trunk and continued to drive out on Route 6. After driving some distance he stopped at an 'all-night' filling station to get some gasoline, but he had told Ford previously that he intended to stop for gas and that Ford was to give no alarm or make any outcry while he was stopped. After having driven approximately 100 miles from Denver, the headlights of his car shone upon a bridge abutment, or the bridge itself, and he slowed down and stopped. Thereafter he drove to the right of the highway on a sort of a lane or small road for a distance of about two car lengths, when he again stopped, alighted from the car, opened the trunk, pulled Ford out, and ordered him to take the rag in which the money and billfold had been placed and blindfold himself, then told him to walk down a rather steep ditch or creek bank under a bridge so that he could not be seen from the highway, and while there tried to make up his mind what disposition to make of Ford because, as he said, he had never harmed a man Before and he didn't know just what to do with him. After thinking it over for a time he decided he would hit Ford over the head with an iron bar which he had in his possession and which was about the circumference of a nickel. He carried out his decision, and in doing so used both hands. Ford fell to the ground and remained down for a short time, but then arose and sort of staggered toward defendant. The blindfold at that time had fallen from Ford's eyes so defendant decided to take him away from that place. At this time a truck was coming from one direction and a car from the opposite direction. He told Ford to lie down so the lights of the car or truck would not shine on him, and Ford got down on all fours. About the time the truck went by Ford suddenly raised up, picked up a rock or hard piece of dirt, and struck defendant with it, whereupon he fired at Ford, who started to run. He then fired another shot at Ford, after which he saw him no more, but heard him running away. He backed his car out onto the highway and proceeded easterly.

Defendant first confessed the murder of Ford on the morning of October 22, 1947, to officers in Pikeville, Kentucky, and at the time, and as a part of his confession, he related two similar crimes which he had committed in Michigan subsequent to September i0. This entire confession was subsequently repeated to other officers as we have noted. According to the record, Schneider's confession of the other similar crimes is substantially as follows:

On the night of October 7, 1947, he drove from Pikeville, Kentucky to Detroit, Michigan. As he was nearing Detroit he decided he would pull a 'stick up' of another service station. He passed a station probably around 10:30 that night near Detroit and noticed a car parked there getting gas, so he continued on his way and went into Detroit. There he spent approximately an hour and then returned to this station. He drove into the station, where one attendant was on duty. He told the attendant, 'this is a stick up,' leveled his gun at him, saying that he wanted his money and he didn't want any trouble with him. He then went into the office, obtained money and other valuables there, and told the attendant to turn off the lights so that no one would drive in while the 'stick up' was in progress. The attendant replied that if he turned off the lights, another man on duty would be awakened. Defendant then deciding that he would have to take the attendant with him, placed him in the trunk of the car and locked it. He proceeded off the main highway upon which the station...

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    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Colorado
    • September 21, 1959
    ...requisite to a proper application of the rule. Jaynes v. People, supra; Reppin v. People, 95 Colo. 192, 34 P.2d 71; Schneider v. People, 118 Colo. 543, 199 P.2d 873. Such requisite is but one aspect of the general rule requiring a party to show the relevancy of evidence, to the admission of......
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