State v. Blatherwick

• Decision Date: 30 January 1946
• Citation: State v. Blatherwick, 191 S.W.2d 1021, 238 Mo.App. 1005 (Mo. App. 1946)
• Parties: The State of Missouri, Respondent, v. Claude Carlyle Blatherwick, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

191 S.W.2d 1021

238 Mo.App. 1005

The State of Missouri, Respondent, v. Claude Carlyle Blatherwick, Appellant

Court of Appeals of Missouri, St. Louis District

January 30, 1946

Appeal from the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis; Hon. Joseph J. Ward, Judge.

Reversed and remanded (with directions).

Milton F. Napier for appellant.

James W. Griffin, Circuit Attorney, for respondent.

McCullen J. Hughes, P. J., and Anderson, J., concur.

OPINION

McCULLEN

This is an appeal from an order overruling appellant's motion to withdraw his plea of guilty to a charge of petit larceny. The record shows that on April 12 1945, an information was filed in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis charging the defendant, Claude Carlyle Blatherwick, with the crime of burglary in the second degree and larceny. On the same day the cause was duly assigned to Division 10 of said Circuit Court. On May 14, 1945, the defendant entered a plea of guilty to the charge of petit larceny and was sentenced to one year in the workhouse on that date.

After the plea of guilty, but prior to the sentence being imposed upon the defendant, the court, on the last mentioned date heard the testimony and reports of three medical doctors, and the report of a fourth doctor, all of whom had examined the defendant personally. The reports and testimony of all the doctors were to the effect that the defendant was suffering from a form of schizophrenia, formerly called dementia precox. Each doctor expressed the opinion that it would be better for the defendant to be taken care of outside of a prison or workhouse and that he would thereby have a chance to become rehabilitated and restored to a normal condition; that incarceration in a prison would be harmful to him. At the conclusion of said medical evidence the court sentenced the defendant, as above stated, to one year in the workhouse, after which the court said: "The court understands there is to be an application for parole in this case."

Although there is nothing in the record before us to indicate when or why a parole was denied the defendant, it evidently was denied because, on June 1, 1945, defendant filed in said Circuit Court a motion for permission to withdraw his plea of guilty, to set aside the sentence, and to reinstate the cause on the docket, on the ground that said plea was entered "on the theory and assumption that a parole was to be granted," and that said "theory and assumption" were not consummated. On July 13, 1945, the court conducted a hearing on defendant's motion and heard oral statements by Milton F. Napier, attorney for the defendant, and oral statements by Thomas J. Burns, Assistant Circuit Attorney, with respect to what had occurred prior to and on May 14, 1945, leading up to defendant's plea of guilty on that date.

At said hearing on the motion herein the court also heard the report and testimony of Dr. H. B. Molholm, Medical Director of the Malcolm A. Bliss Psychopathic Hospital, which hospital is a part of the St. Louis City Hospital group. Dr. Molholm testified that as a private consultant he had examined the defendant on April 5, 1945, and had made a report thereon. Dr. Molholm also stated that he had seen the defendant at the Bliss Psychapathic Hospital on July 12, 1945, the day before the hearing on the motion herein. In substance, Dr. Molholm's testimony was similar to that of the other doctors. He gave it as his opinion that the defendant's type of mental case would have a better chance of improvement in his home environment than in an outside the home environment.

It appears from the evidence adduced at the hearing on July 13, 1945, that the defendant, after having been sent to the workhouse under his sentence of May 14, 1945, had been transferred to the Bliss Psychopathic Hospital on June 6, 1945, by the warden of the workhouse for the reason, as stated by the warden in a letter to Mr. Napier, defendant's attorney, that defendant "is not a subject for an institution of this kind." It also appears that a letter was sent by City Hospital Commissioner, Mr. F. M. Grogan, dated June 20, 1945, to the Judge of the Circuit Court, with a copy to the Circuit Attorney, urging the court to set aside the sentence of the defendant because, according to the letter, the defendant was "suffering a psychosis Schizophrenic in Type, which will necessitate a long period of hospitalization in a mental institution." The letter further urged the court to set aside the sentence "so that we may discharge him from the Bliss Hospital into the custody of his parents for transfer to his home city."

From the various oral statements made to the court by Mr. Napier, the defendant's attorney, and Mr. Burns, representing the State, it appears that the defendant's actions and conduct had been under investigation by the United States District Attorney's office in relation to a number of thefts of small amounts of money from various persons including army officers. It also appears that the defendant had been a United States Army officer and had been released from the army on April 10, 1944, at Houston, Texas. The chief reason for defendant's release from the army was "adult psychological maladjustment," according to a letter dated May 5, 1945, addressed to the Circuit Attorney of St. Louis by Norman G. Brennan, Major A. G. D., Adjutant in charge of Infantry, Replacement Training Center, Camp Roberts, California.

The defendant's attorney, during the course of the hearing on the motion herein, many times stated to the court that he felt and believed that he himself had erroneously assumed there would be a parole granted to his client, the defendant, immediately following the plea of guilty; that he was mistaken in this assumption and in advising the defendant to plead guilty on such an assumption; that looking back on the whole matter he could see that he had received no promise of a recommendation for a parole from the parole officer of the court; that he merely assumed there would be a parole, because the parole officer had not indicated anything to the contrary; that the defendant in pleading guilty "acted entirely and solely and only on the advice of his counsel; that it was his assumption and his theory that upon the presentation of the medical testimony, the record would be made up and that there would be a parole from this court."

From their respective oral statements to the court, it appears that defendant's attorney and Mr. Burns, the Assistant Circuit Attorney, had prior to the defendant's plea of guilty discussed at various times the probability of a parole in connection with a plea of...