State v. Arndt

• Decision Date: 27 September 1940
• Docket Number: No. 37313.,37313.
• Citation: 143 S.W.2d 286
• Parties: STATE v. ARNDT.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

143 S.W.2d 286

STATE v. ARNDT.

No. 37313.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

September 27, 1940.

Appeal from Circuit Court, St. Francois County; Taylor Smith, Judge.

Raymond Cecil Arndt was convicted of stealing hogs, and he appeals.

Judgment affirmed.

Roy McKittrick, Atty. Gen., and Ernest Hubbell, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

WESTHUES, Commissioner.

Appellant was convicted in the Circuit Court of St. Francois County on a charge of stealing hogs and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of two years. He appealed. Appellant did not file a brief in this court. In his motion for new trial he alleged that the trial court erred in admitting in evidence an alleged written confession because the evidence showed that the confession had been procured through duress; that the trial court erred in admitting the confession in evidence because the corpus delicti had not been established. Appellant also alleged in his motion that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the verdict.

The state's evidence established the following facts: Mrs. Sarah Booen and the appellant were neighbors living in Washington County, Missouri. About February or March, 1939, Mrs. Booen missed two of her pigs. One of them was later found at a Mr. Nixon's place about one and one-half miles from the home of Mrs. Booen and was returned to her. Audrey Vance testified that he bought two pigs from appellant with the understanding that appellant would redeem one. A Mr. Cavanaugh also testified that he bought two pigs from appellant. The alleged confession of appellant read as follows:

"My name is Raymond Cecil Arndt. I am 23 years of age and I live in Hopewell, Missouri.

"About the middle of February, 1939, two black and white spotted pigs, weighing about 20 pounds each, the property of Mrs. Saray Booen, of Hopewell, Missouri, came to my barn and I locked the two pigs up in the barn and later put them with six pigs of my own. I kept these pigs about three days and Mr. Briley, my father-in-law, came out to my place and I put all eight pigs in his car and took them to Mr. Briley's home in Wortham, Missouri. The next day, Harold Briley, my brother-in-law, put three pigs in his car, one being the property of Mrs. Booen and the other two, mine. We took these three pigs to Leadwood and sold the one belonging to Mrs. Booen to Vernon Cavanaugh for $3.00. Vernon Cavanaugh lives in Leadwood, Missouri. I sold the other two pigs to Claude Daine of Leadwood. Two or three days later I sold the other pig belonging to Mrs. Booen to Audrey Vance at Wortham, Missouri. I got $2.00 for this pig. About the second or third day after I sold the pig to Vance, I heard that Tpr. Dampf was in Wortham and I thought maybe he was checking on the pigs, so I went to the Vance pig pen and put the pig in a sack and took the pig back to Hopewell and turned it loose near the railroad tracks. About the second or third day after I turned the pig loose, I heard that Virgil Booen came down to Fred Nixon's and got the pig.

                    "(Signed) Raymond Cecil Arndt."
                

In the record the name Cavanaugh was also referred to as Caviness, and the name of Booen as Bowen. If the evidence and confession be true, the pigs were stolen in Washington County and taken to St. Francois County and there sold. This would authorize a prosecution for larceny in St. Francois County. See State v. Crow, 337 Mo. 397, 84 S.W.2d 926, loc. cit. 928(1, 2). Appellant's point, that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a conviction, is without merit. The statements in the confession coincide with the evidence of the witnesses for the state. Two of Mrs. Booen's pigs disappeared. Later one was found near the point where defendant stated he had "turned it loose." Mrs. Booen testified that the pig found was one of the missing pigs. Cavanaugh and Vance both testified that they bought pigs from appellant as appellant had stated in his confession. That evidence was sufficient to sustain a conviction.

Neither is there any...