State v. Bradley

• Decision Date: 31 October 1878
• Citation: 68 Mo. 140
• Parties: THE STATE, Appellant, v. BRADLEY.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

68 Mo. 140

THE STATE, Appellant,

v.BRADLEY.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

October Term, 1878.

Appeal from Livingston Circuit Court.--HON. E. J. BROADDUS, Judge.

This was an indictment for obtaining goods by false pretenses. It charged that the defendant, Bradley, contriving, designing and intending to cheat and defraud one Elijah T. Austin of his stock of goods, wares and merchandise, did apply to and request the said Austin to sell and barter to him a certain stock of general dry goods and groceries in exchange for a tract of land, and to induce the said Austin to sell and barter said stock, * * and to effect his said design and intent to cheat and defraud the said Austin, he the said Bradley, did then and there designedly, feloniously and falsely pretend to the said Austin, that he, the said Bradley, was then and there the owner in his own right in fee, of 160 acres of land, being, &c., and that he had an abstract of said land prepared by one Saunders, and that said abstract showed a good and perfect title in fee to said land to be in him, the said Bradley; and the said Austin believing the said false pretenses and representations * * to be true, and being deceived thereby, and induced by the said false pretenses and representations aforesaid to sell, * * the said stock of general dry goods and groceries, * * which the said Bradley agreed and promised then and there to pay for at once by exchange of said land herein described, which said land by request of said Austin, the said Bradley was to convey by a deed of quit-claim to Frances J. Austin, the wife of said Elijah T. Austin, and which said deed purporting to convey a title in fee to said land, was then and there made and delivered by said Bradley to said Austin, to have and to hold for the use of his wife, the said Frances J.; that the said Bradley, by means of the said false pretenses and representations, so made as aforesaid, unlawfully, feloniously and designedly did obtain and receive of and from him, the said Austin, the said stock of general dry goods and groceries above mentioned, with intent, him, the said Austin, then and there to cheat and defraud; whereas, in truth and in fact, he, the said Bradley, was not then and there the owner in his own right in fee of the aforesaid tract of land; and, whereas, in truth and in fact, the abstract of said land prepared by one Saunders, that showed a good and perfect title to said land to be in him, the said Bradley, he, the said Bradley, well knew that...