State v. Andrews
| Decision Date | 14 October 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 2,No. 49426,49426,2 |
| Citation | 371 S.W.2d 324 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Joseph Ward ANDREWS, Appellant |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
No attorney for appellant.
Thomas F. Eagleton, Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, George D. Chopin, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., St. Louis, for respondent.
STOCKARD, Commissioner.
Joseph Ward Andrews was found guilty by a jury of robbery in the first degree by means of a dangerous and deadly weapon. Section 560.120 RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S. After finding that the defendant had previously been convicted and sentenced for the felony of assault with intent to rob and also for the felony of grand larceny, as alleged in the information, punishment was fixed by the trial judge at life imprisonment. See Section 560.135, RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S. Sentence and judgment followed, and defendant has appealed.
Defendant has filed no brief in this court. In this situation this court will review the assignments of error properly preserved in the motion for new trial. State v. Parks, Mo., 331 S.W.2d 547. The first two assignments are that the trial court erred in denying defendant's motions for judgment of acquittal filed at the close of the state's case and at the close of all the evidence. Defendant offered no evidence, but the record shows that he twice made the identical motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of the state's evidence. The resulting question is whether the state made a submissible case, and in ruling this question we consider all the evidence, and the reasonable inferences therefrom, from a standpoint favorable to the state. When so considered a jury reasonably could find the following facts and circumstances.
At nine o'clock in the morning of September 1, 1961, appellant and Charles Garton entered the Farley State Bank in Farley, Missouri. Appellant took a revolver from his shirt, pointed it at those present including Mr. James W. Farley, executive vice president of the bank, and announced that 'this is a hold up, everybody do what you are told and nobody will get hurt.' All the persons present except Mr. Mike Jarowitz, the cashier, were directed to go to the directors' room. Charles Garton then directed Mike Jarowitz to open the vault and to put currency in a bag which Garton produced, and to give to Garton a money bag containing 647 silver dollars. Jarowitz was then required to enter the directors' room with the others, and appellant and Garton ran from the bank, got into an automobile and drove off. The Reverend Mr. George Zunker, a Lutheran minister who was standing nearby, wrote down the license number of the automobile. The amount of money taken from the bank in the robbery was $13,613.00.
Jack Streater, the driver of the 'getaway' automobile used in the robbery, testified for the state. The substance of his testimony was that he, appellant and Garton drove from Kansas City to Farley, Missouri, and appellant and Garton entered the Farley State Bank. After Streater turned the automobile around, appellant and Garton came out of the bank and appellant had some money and a gun in his hands. He drove 'out in the country' where appellant and Garton got out of the automobile and Streater then drove to his farm. That evening when Streater picked up appellant and Garton they told him that they had hidden the silver dollars in a hollow tree. They then returned to Kansas City where the money was divided, and Streater's share was $4,100. He was to divide the silver with appellant at a later time. Appellant gave Streater $3,000 of his share to hide for him, and the next day when appellant went to Streater's farm, Streater returned the $3,000 to him and gave him a bucket in which to hide the money. After Streater was arrested he went with some state troopers and located the hollow tree, and they then found a bag containing a shotgun, a revolver, a sack with 637 silver dollars in it, some shotgun shells, ten loose shells and three hats. In Streater's automobile when he was arrested the police found $2,330, and the serial numbers on a 'sampling' of the bills were the same as the numbers on bills received on June 2, 1961, from the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City, Missouri.
There is no question, in view of the above facts, that a jury was authorized to find that appellant was guilty of robbery in the first degree by means of a dangerous and deadly weapon. See State v. Ray, Mo., 354 S.W.2d 840; State v. Martin, Mo., 346 S.W.2d 71; State v. Griffin, Mo., 339 S.W.2d 803, certiorari denied 366 U.S. 938, 81 S.Ct. 1666, 6 L.Ed.2d 849. However, in each of the two motions for judgment of acquittal, appellant asserted that while the information charged that he robbed James W. Farley, the evidence showed that Mike Jarowitz signed for the money, was in control of it, and therefore it was from Jarowitz and not Farley that the money was taken.
Mr. Jarowitz testified that he, as cashier, was 'responsible for the money.' However, all the employees took money from the vault and placed it in the tellers' cages. All employees worked in each teller cage when needed, and the money was not under the exclusive care or custody of any one person. Mr. Farley was the executive vice president of the bank and all the employees including Mr. Jarowitz, were under his 'direct supervision and control.' Mr. Farley accepted the money for the bank when it was received from the Federal Reserve Bank. As the executive officer all the money in the bank was under his custody, and his custody and control were exercised through the various employees, including Mr. Jarowitz. The evidence establishes that by reason of the use by appellant of a dangerous and deadly weapon Mr. Farley was placed in fear of immediate injury to his person, and that money in his care and custody was taken therefrom by appellant. The proof did not vary from the allegations of the indictment but conformed thereto. See State v. Pope, 338 Mo....
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Garton v. State
...(Mo.), 371 S.W.2d 283. The daylight robbery in the village of Farley (population 120 in 1960) is also described in detail in State v. Andrews (Mo.), 371 S.W.2d 324. In 1964 Garton instituted a 27.26, V.A.M.R., proceeding in which he attacked his 1962 conviction and the judgment in that case......
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State v. Smith
...exclusion of women are: State v. Taylor, 356 Mo. 1216, 205 S.W.2d 734, 738; State v. Ready, Mo., 251 S.W.2d 680, 683; State v. Andrews, Mo., 371 S.W.2d 324, 327; Parker v. Wallace, Mo., 431 S.W.2d 136, 138; State v. Parker, Mo., 462 S.W.2d 737 and State v. Davis, Mo., 462 S.W.2d 798. It is ......
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Helming v. Dulle
...juror for cause. * * *' A party has a right to a jury fairly selected and may reject any who are unqualified or prejudiced. State v. Andrews, Mo., 371 S.W.2d 324; Kendall v. Prudential Insurance Company, Mo., 327 S.W.2d 174. The question of exemption was directed to the Court and was for th......
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State v. Johnson
...fatal variance.' This rule was applied in State v. Harmon, 296 S.W. l.c. 396, and State v. Lamb, 141 Mo. 298, 42 S.W. 827. In State v. Andrews, Mo., 371 S.W.2d 324, a bank robbery case, the information charged that the defendant robbed James W. Farley while the proof showed that the money w......