State v. Barri

• Decision Date: 04 December 1917
• Docket Number: No. 20336.,20336.
• Citation: 199 S.W. 136
• Parties: STATE v. BARRI.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

199 S.W. 136

STATE v. BARRI.

No. 20336.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

December 4, 1917.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jasper County; David E. Blair, Judge.

Jack Barri, alias Jack Beri, alias Dago, was convicted of robbery in the first degree, and he appeals. Judgment reversed, and cause remanded.

Upon an information charging him with the crime of robbery in the first degree, defendant was tried in the circuit court of Jasper county, found guilty and his punishment assessed at eight years in the penitentiary. Defendant duly appealed. The state's evidence tends to establish the following facts: About 1 o'clock p. m. May 31, 1916, the Neck City Bank of Neck City, Mo., was robbed by one man. An employé of the bank, L. Hagar was the only person in the bank at the time the robber entered. Hagar was sitting at a desk working on the bank books when the robber came in and passed around behind the counter, holding a 38 revolver in his left hand and a bottle containing a yellow liquid in the other. The robber said, "Don't make a move or I will blow you up; throw up your hands or I will blow you up." The robber then compelled Hagar to get into the vault, and as the robber closed the door of the vault, said, "I will put this bottle by this door, and if you make an attempt to get out this will blow you up." While in the vault Hagar heard the money rattle and in a short time Mr. Long, the cashier of the bank, returned from his lunch. As Long entered the bank he saw a man standing at the telephone. Upon arriving behind the counter of the bank Long was covered by the revolver of the intruder and told to "get in there." Long inquired, "Where?" The robber indicated the vault and said, "You know how to open it, open it." Long then opened the vault door and was forced by the robber to go inside of the vault. Whereupon the robber closed the vault door. Long and Hagar remained in the vault some two or three minutes, at the end of which time by the use of a screw driver, which had at some prior time been left within the vault, they were able to unlock the vault door and liberate themselves, and found that between two hundred and five hundred dollars in currency, in denominations of five, ten and twenty dollar bills, had disappeared from the drawer at the counter, and between one thousand and two thousand dollars, in denominations of one and five dollar bills had disappeared from the safe. The safe was separate and distinct from the vault. Long tried to use the telephone but found it out of order. He and Hagar immediately went to a nearby office and notified the police of the surrounding towns of the robbery, and the two with others started in an automobile in search for the robber but were unable to overtake him.

Hagar testified that the robber's face was pretty well hid at the time of the robbery, but that the defendant looked like the man that committed the robbery. After defendant was arrested and in jail, Hagar visited the jail and identified the defendant as the man who had robbed the bank. Long testified that the robber wore large goggles and a cap pulled well down over his forehead and was dressed in a khaki suit. Long identified the defendant as the man who robbed the bank and testified that he saw the defendant in a Ford touring car pass the bank on the morning of the robbery between 10 and 11 o'clock. When Long returned from his dinner to the bank he saw a Ford touring car standing out in front of the bank the engine of which was running. Mr. Mackey testified that about 11:45 a. m. of the day of the robbery the defendant ate dinner at his restaurant in Neck City; that the defendant was driving a five-passenger Ford automobile and wore a yellow khaki suit and a white panama hat.

About the middle of May, 1916, defendant agreed to purchase some real estate in Webb City and gave in part payment thereof a $300 check drawn on an Oklahoma bank. The check afterwards came back marked "no funds." About May 31st the witness saw defendant and spoke to him about the check, and then defendant told the witness that he had stopped payment on the check because he did not know whether the title to the property was good, but stated that he would be up that afternoon and make it good. The following day, on June 1st, defendant paid the witness $300 in cash, the bills being in denominations of ten and twenty dollars. The following day, on June 2d, defendant paid the witness the further sum of $350, which was the balance of the purchase price of the lot. Two hundred dollars of this amount was paid in gold and the remainder in bills. On June 6th defendant bought a bill of furniture at a furniture store in Webb City and paid cash for the bill taking a discount. On June 3d defendant bought an automobile at Joplin, paying therefor $300 in currency, the bills being of less denomination than $20.

Defendant was later arrested at the home of his wife's uncle near Sedalia, Mo. The officer making the arrest found a 25 Harrington & Richards automatic revolver in a room in the house where defendant had gone to wash his hands immediately after the arrest. The officer said to defendant, "Jack is that your gun?" defendant said, "No, it belongs to one of the boys here." It appears that the gun was of unusual make, and was identified at the trial as the one which belonged to Mr. Long, the...