State v. Dale
| Decision Date | 29 May 1924 |
| Docket Number | 24,039 |
| Citation | 199 N.W. 99,159 Minn. 455 |
| Parties | STATE v. WARREN DALE |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Defendant was indicted by the grand jury of Martin county charged with the crime of grand larceny in the second degree tried in the district court for that county before Dean, J and a jury which found him guilty as charged in the indictment. From an order denying his motion for a new trial defendant appealed. Affirmed.
Conviction for grand larceny sustained.
1. There was legal proof of defendant's guilt.
Value of currency.
2. The evidence justified the jury in finding that the currency which the prosecuting witness testified was taken was money of the United States and of value.
Defendant questioned as to cross-examination.
3. A defendant taking the witness stand may be asked, on cross-examination, if he has been previously convicted of crime.
Paul C. Cooper, for appellant.
Clifford L. Hilton, Attorney General, James E. Markham, Deputy Attorney General, and John W. Lovell, County Attorney, for respondent.
Defendant was found guilty of grand larceny in the second degree, and appeals from the order denying a new trial.
The indictment charged that in the daytime defendant from the till in the office of a filling station, stole $54, lawful money of the United States, the property of one N. C. Harber. The chief contention is that guilt was not established by sufficient legal proof. It appears that on the southeast corner of a block in the city of Fairmont, there is one of the modern gasolene filling stations, operated by N. C. Harber. The building is set back from the corner and fronts a wide driveway running diagonally from the intersecting streets. The front door of the office opens onto the driveway. North of the office is an oiling rack.
The state's proof was that about 6 p.m. May 27, 1923, one Tulp and defendant drove an automobile upon the rack; that Tulp went to the office door and asked Harber to come out and look at the oil in his car; that when Harber came out to do so, he did not see defendant; that, after Harber looked at the oil, Tulp bought a quart which Harber procured from a place in front of the office, came back, poured it in, and was paid 25 cents therefor; that when Harber went to put this money in the till, he found $54 in currency missing; that about as Tulp drove away, Harber's nephew came and was directed to follow Tulp and get his car number; that this nephew so did, and noticed that defendant was waiting for Tulp, got into Tulp's car, and the two drove away. They were later apprehended at Elmore, a small place some distance from Fairmont, and brought back to the latter place. Tulp as a witness for the state, testified, in substance, that when he told defendant that he needed a quart of oil, dependant requested him to drive to this station up onto the rack and to ask the man in charge to look at the oil; that he did so drive up and both got out of the car; that he, Tulp, then went to the office, as testified to by Harber, got the oil filled the radiator with water, and drove off; that he did not see defendant after they got out of the car at the rack until, as he drove away from the station, he saw him down the street motioning him, Tulp, to drive around the corner; that defendant got into the car and said: "You got some cheap oil; I got $6 out of the station while you were getting the oil"; that defendant showed him the money and offered $3 to Tulp which was declined. A woman, living in the house directly west of...
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