State v. Bland
| Decision Date | 12 February 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 48888,No. 1,48888,1 |
| Citation | 353 S.W.2d 584 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. James BLAND, Appellant |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Wm. Bruce Kopper, Clayton, for appellant.
Thomas F. Eagleton, Atty. Gen., Richard R. Nacy, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
COIL, Commissioner.
A jury found James Bland guilty of robbery in the first degree and the trial court having found defendant theretofore had been convicted of two felonies as charged, sentenced him to twenty years' imprisonment. Bland has appealed. Inasmuch as he has filed no brief we shall examine the assignments of error contained in his motion for new trial.
Assignment 5 asserts, inter alia, that the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction. The state's evidence tended to show that about 8:30 a. m. on December 27, 1960, two men, wearing stocking masks and each displaying a gun, entered Luckett's Lounge at 4616 Delmar in St. Louis. One went behind the bar and placed a knife at the throat of a woman employee, who complied with his direction that she open the cash register and place the money (approximately $25) and certain bottles of liquor in a blue canvas bag provided by him. The other masked man took money from a customer and, after ordering all present into the men's room, both robbers departed. About three hours later the police arrested the defendant and one Arnet Toran. At the time defendant was carrying the blue canvas bag which still contained the bottles of liquor which previously had been taken and a sports jacket in the pocket of which were two stocking masks similar to the ones worn by the two men. Certain items of clothing worn by the defendant and Toran when arrested were similar to items of clothing worn by the two robbers. Defendant and Torn were positively identified as the men who took the money and liquor from Luckett's.
Other evidence will be stated as necessary to dispose of other assignments in defendant's new trial motion. The foregoing brief summary, however, is sufficient to demonstrate that there was substantial evidence from which a jury reasonably could have found that defendant was guilty of robbery in the first degree; i. e., that he took the property of another from that other's agent in charge thereof, against the will of the agent and by putting her in fear of immediate injury to her person. Section 560.120 RSMo 1959 and V.A.M.S.
Defendant's new trial assignment 5 insofar as it avers that the verdict and judgment were against the weight of the evidence and were based only on prejudice and conjecture is too general to have preserved anything for appellate review.
New trial assignment 1 is that the trial court erred in admitting in evidence three exhibits: 5, a torn one dollar bill which had been taped; 9, a pair of leather combat boots; and 10, the sports jacket found in the blue bag the time of defendant's arrest. Defendant made no objection to Exhibits 5 and 9 and, consequently, there is nothing before us for review as to those. Furthermore, it is apparent that both were admissible. The state's evidence showed that part of the $25 taken from the cash register was a one dollar bill which had been taped in the same manner as the dollar bill found in defendant's possession at the time of his arrest. The combat boots were being worn by Toran at the time of his and defendant's arrest and were similar to the boots worn by one of the robbers in Luckett's Lounge. Defendant objected to Exhibit 10, the sports jacket, on the ground that there was no evidence that it was at the 'scene of the crime.' No such objection has been urged in the motion for new trial. In any event, however, the evidence showed that the bag in Bland's possession at the time of his arrest was the same bag into which was placed the money and the liquor taken from Luckett's Lounge and while there was no testimony that the sports jacket was in the bag at that time, the evidence did show that the two stockings which were used by the robbers were found in a pocket of the jacket which was found in the blue bag at the time defendant was arrested. The trial court did not err in admitting Exhibit 10.
Arnet Toran had been jointly indicted with defendant. He secured a severance and only Bland was on trial. Mrs. Toran, Arnet's mother, was defendant's witness. On cross-examination the state showed that defendant shared a 3-room apartment with Mrs. Toran, paid for part of the food, was the boss of the place, and that he and Mrs. Toran had shared the same quarters for the past two years, including the time in 1958 when defendant had been in prior trouble.
Defendant's new trial assignment 2 is that the court erred in permitting the state to show that defendant and Mrs. Toran lived together and to unduly dwell on the subject in an attempt to discredit Mrs. Toran's testimony; that if the testimony was proper as showing a relationship which might affect the credibility of Mrs. Toran as a witness, it was improper to imply that the witness and defendant were occupying the same bed. We have reviewed the testimony in question and we find no undue emphasis upon or dwelling upon the relationship between Mrs. Toran and defendant or any improperly phrased question in that respect. It was proper for the state to have made the showing indicated as tending to affect the credibility of Mrs. Toran's testimony. State v. Pigques, Mo., 301 S.W.2d 942, 947[7, 8]; State v. Cole, Mo., 312 S.W. 110, 113.
Assignment 3 complains that the state's jury argument was improper and prejudicial in two respects. One of defendant's witnesses was presented as a lady who was deaf and dumb. The questions and her answers were written. She gave testimony which supported defendant's alibi. In closing argument, state's counsel, in talking of that witness's testimony, pointed out that there was no evidence indicating or proving that the witness was actually incapacitated; that they (the jurors) had no way to know, just as he didn't know, whether she was 'putting on' a 'silent act'; that it could have been another 'Perry Mason picture' as far as they knew. Defendant's counsel interjected, 'Oh, your Honor.' Whereupon the trial court stated that state's counsel was entitled to analyze the evidence and to make such argument as he deemed appropriate and suggested that there was no occasion for defendant's counsel to have arisen. The state's attorney then proceeded to point out that there was no medical evidence of the witness's condition, but that even if she were deaf and dumb, that fact would not make her more believable than any other witness.
We cannot determine from the record whether counsel intended to state an objection and a reason therefor and was cut off by the court, or whether he intended to say nothing more than he did say. In any event, the fact is that defendant's counsel made no objection, before or after ...
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State v. Washington
...the defendant if you fail to find all of the aforesaid facts as stated', has been commonly used in such instructions, and State v. Bland, Mo., 353 S.W.2d 584, held that it did not 'fail to make clear the jury's duty to find defendant not guilty if it failed to find the hypothesized facts be......
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State v. Johnson
...and the trial court did not err in failing to act of its own motion. State v. Williams Mo.Sup., 419 S.W.2d 49, 53(6); State v. Bland, Mo.Sup., 353 S.W.2d 584, 587(7). II The denial of right to effective assistance of counsel is asserted on the basis that trial counsel failed to object to ap......
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...P.2d 396 (1951); People v. Mullen, 115 Cal.App.2d 340, 252 P.2d 19 (1953); State v. Roy, 220 La. 1017, 58 So.2d 323 (1952); State v. Bland, 353 S.W.2d 584 (Mo.1962); Russell v. State, 66 Neb. 497, 92 N.W. 751 (1902); cf. State v. Mayfield, 506 S.W.2d 363 (Mo.1974). Of course, illustrations ......
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State v. Brooks
...exhibit or to any testimony concerning it. Consequently, there is nothing concerning the exhibit preserved for our review. State v. Bland, Mo., 353 S.W.2d 584, 586[3-5]. We observe, however, that, as indicated in the fact statement above, there was testimony that the knife fell to the posit......