State v. Brown, 55664

• Decision Date: 08 February 1971
• Docket Number: No. 55664,No. 1,55664,1
• Citation: State v. Brown, 462 S.W.2d 766 (Mo. 1971)
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Carl Abe BROWN, Defendant-Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 766

462 S.W.2d 766

STATE of Missouri, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Carl Abe BROWN, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 55664.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

Feb. 8, 1971.

John C. Danforth, Atty. Gen., Thomas H. Stahl, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for plaintiff-respondent.

Orville C. Winchell, Lebanon, for defendant-appellant.

WELBORN, Commissioner.

Jury found appellant, Carl Abe Brown, guilty of stealing property of a value of at least $50. Trial court, under Second Offender Act, fixed punishment at four years' imprisonment. This appeal followed.

At some unspecified hour on August 27, 1968, an employee of Quality Court Motel in Lebanon, Missouri, cleaned and put in order Room 241 of the motel. She observed that the Motorola color television set was in the room. She closed and locked the door to the room.

At around 1:00 A.M., August 28, appellant, Carl Abe Brown, accompanied by a woman, appeared in the Quality Court Motel office and asked for a room. The clerk on duty had Brown complete a registration card and assigned him Room 241, giving him the key to the room. Brown left the office and was not seen again at the motel. About forty minutes later, the woman appeared in the office, looking for a magazine. She talked to the clerk for about five minutes and then left. The clerk did not observe an auto moving around outside the premises after Brown registered. He did not see Brown go to Room 241. The room rental for the night was never paid.

At around 10:00 A.M., August 28, the employee who had cleaned the room the day before entered Room 241 to clean it, using a key to open the door. Shortly after entering the room she saw that the television set was missing. She called the motel office and advised the person on duty then that the television set was missing.

A city warrant was issued charging Brown with stealing. At approximately 11:15 or 11:30, a Lebanon policeman went to Brown's house to serve the warrant. The officer was admitted to the house by a woman who told the officer Brown was not there. The officer entered the house, searched it and in the course of the search Brown appeared in a second floor room. He was placed under arrest. The television set was never found.

At Brown's trial, the state offered evidence of the above matters. The only additional evidence offered by the state related to the necessity for a key to open the door to Room 241, the number of available keys which would open the door and the value of the missing television set.

After his motion for acquittal at the close of the state's case was overruled, defendant offered the testimony of the clerk of another motel in Lebanon that Brown checked in at his motel at around midnight on August 27, 1968, paid for a night's lodging and parked his car alongside the room assigned to him. He did not see Brown enter his room but did not see him leave either.

On this appeal, appellant has raised the question of sufficiency of the evidence...