State v. Burns
| Decision Date | 31 December 1924 |
| Docket Number | 25625 |
| Citation | 268 S.W. 79 |
| Parties | STATE v. BURNS |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Verne Lacy and John A. Moore, both of St. Louis, for appellant.
Jesse W. Barrett, Atty. Gen., and George W. Crowder, Asst. Atty Gen., for the State.
Statement.
On June 21, 1922, an information was filed in the circuit court of the city of St. Louis, Mo., which alleges that on May 11 1922, appellant was guilty of larceny in stealing from the person of Norman P. Knowlton, in the city aforesaid, one bill fold of the value of $ 2, $ 17 of lawful money of the United States, and Liberty bond coupons of the value of $ 3.21, all of the value of $ 22.21, etc. The defendant was arrested waived a formal arraignment, and entered his plea of not guilty. The jury before whom said cause was tried, on May 2, 1923, returned into court the following verdict:
'We, the jury in the above-entitled cause, find the defendant guilty of larceny from the person as charged in the information, and assess the punishment at imprisonment in the penitentiary for (2) years.
'J. A. Goeke, Foreman.'
Motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were filed and overruled. Thereafter, on June 29, 1923, defendant was sentenced and judgment entered in conformity to the verdict aforesaid. Defendant duly appealed to this court.
We find, upon examination of the record, that counsel for the state have made a fair statement of the facts, as follows:
A summary of the evidence shows that Norman P. Knowlton, who at the time resided at 5578 Clemens avenue, in the city of St. Louis, was returning from his work at about the hour of 5 o'clock in the afternoon of the 11th day of May. He testified that he left a Grand avenue car at Grand and Franklin avenues and started to board a Hodiamont car going west. The occurrence as he was getting on the Hodiamont car may be best stated in his own language:
The witness Knowlton testified that he gave chase to appellant, only losing sight of him during brief moments as the latter would be turning street corners. After running several blocks witness overtook and caught appellant in an alley, where some men were engaged in tearing down a building. As witness approached appellant the latter threw a brick at him but missed him, then the two grappled. After they had been disengaged from each other's hold, appellant, brandishing a club, threatened personal violence to Knowlton, and thereby prevented him from further taking hold upon appellant. The evidence shows that appellant left this place after the encounter with Knowlton, but Knowlton proceeded to follow him closely, and as he followed called loudly for the police. Finally one William E. Butler, a licensed watchman, engaged in doing police duty, came up and placed appellant under arrest. After the arrest, Officer Butler put appellant in a police automobile and proceeded to drive away toward the police station, first taking the witness Knowlton and another into the car with him. They had not proceeded far when appellant suddenly struck the officer a blow and leaped from the car, running into an alley. The officer, the driver of the car, and the witness Knowlton all followed in hot pursuit, and succeeded in recapturing appellant before he had gone much more than 50 yards. Appellant was not out of sight of his pursuers at any time during the last chase. The officer then proceeded to the police station and locked appellant up. The money and Liberty bond coupons were inside the bill fold, and the bill fold was in Knowlton's left hip pocket at the time it was taken. The pocketbook, or bill fold, was returned to Knowlton the next day after it was stolen. The man returning it was named Paul Johanningsmeyer, whom Knowlton had not previously known. The explanation given by the party returning the property was that he had found the same in the 3600 block on Bell avenue in the city of St. Louis, which was about one block west of Grand avenue. The pocketbook contained the Liberty bond coupons when it was found, but the money had been taken therefrom.
William Butler, a licensed watchman, testified that on May 11, 1922, at about the hour of 5:30 p. m., he was in front of his home at No. 1108 Leonard avenue cleaning his car; that he saw appellant running north on Leonard avenue toward Easton avenue, followed by a crowd; that prosecuting witness Knowlton came along and informed Butler that he had just had his pocket picked; that Butler immediately jumped into his car and pursued appellant, who had been pointed out to him by Knowlton, and afterwards arrested him at Garrison avenue or in the vicinity thereof; that the prisoner was put into the rear set of the automobile with the prosecuting witness and another, who was riding with him at the time, and as the car was being driven along the street just after leaving the place of arrest, Mr. Butler turned, or reached back to close the door of the car, when appellant suddenly struck at him and leaped from the car. The witness Butler further testified that he followed appellant, and again succeeded in arresting him, and finally took him to the police station and locked him up. Appellant was searched by this officer, but no property belonging to the witness Knowlton was found upon or about his person.
Appellant did not see fit to take the witness stand in his own behalf but introduced two witnesses for the purpose of...
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