State v. Dale
| Decision Date | 15 November 1886 |
| Parties | STATE v. DALE. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Appeal from Cedar circuit court.
The Attorney General, for the State. Buller & Lay, for appellant, Dale.
Defendant was indicted in the Cedar circuit court for stealing a mare. The indictment was found in September, 1884. At the March term, 1885, there was a mistrial, and at the October term, 1885, defendant applied for a continuance, which was refused, and the defendant forced to a trial, which resulted in his conviction. From the judgment he has appealed.
No instructions are preserved in the bill of exceptions. No objections or exceptions were taken to the admission or exclusion of testimony. The indictment sufficiently charges the offense, and nothing is left for our consideration but the action of the court in refusing the defendant's application for a continuance. His subpoena was issued promptly, but was not returned when the cause was called for trial. His affidavit was in every respect formally sufficient, but the facts which he alleged the absent witnesses would swear to are wholly immaterial and irrelevant. One of the witnesses, George B. Thompson, would have testified that in August, 1884, he bought cattle, which he afterwards ascertained were stolen property; that he gave the marshal of Lamar a description of the man of whom he bought the cattle, and the marshal gave Thompson the description of the mare defendant is charged with having stolen; that in August or September, 1884, he met one Pomeroy, near the residence of the latter, in the state of Kansas, and, while in conversation with him, mentioned the fact that he had been requested to look out for a stolen mare, and described her to Pomeroy, who then informed him that he had such a mare in his pasture. This testimony, it is contended, is material, as contradicting what Pomeroy is alleged to have testified to at the former trial, viz., that he, and not the witness Thompson, introduced the subject of the stolen mare. Aside from the fact that the contradiction is of an unimportant, immaterial fact, it nowhere appears except in defendant's affidavit that Pomeroy so testified on the former trial. The other witness whose testimony he desired would have testified that he was well acquainted with Alexander Dale, and that on the twenty-sixth day of August, 1884, Alexander Dale came to where witness was at work, in a mine, near Albia, in Jasper county, and introduced as his cousin the defendant, Thomas Dale. What...
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State v. McKeever
... ... Although not within the purpose expressed ... in appellant's affidavit, Hicks' evidence might bear ... indirectly on an alibi. Still, it is negative in its nature, ... makes no attempt to negative appellant's ability to have ... been present at the scene of the offense [State v. Dale, 89 ... Mo. 579, 581, 1 S.W. 760, 761], and does not attempt to ... account for his presence prior to or at the time of its ... actual commission ... [339 ... Mo. 1077] IV. Prior to the trial appellant filed a motion ... alleging (1) that in extradition proceedings of one ... ...
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State v. Turlington
...these facts constituted no defense to the crime of which defendant stood charged, then the continuance was properly denied. State v. Dale, 89 Mo. 579, 1 S.W. 760. witnesses would all have testified, in effect, that defendant was mentally and morally capable of understanding the difference b......
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State v. McKeever
...in its nature, makes no attempt to negative appellant's ability to have been present at the scene of the offense [State v. Dale, 89 Mo. 579, 581, 1 S.W. 760, 761], and does not attempt to account for his presence prior to or at the time of its actual [4] IV. Prior to the trial appellant fil......
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State v. Turlington
...If these facts constituted no defense to the crime of which defendant stood charged, then the continuance was properly denied. State v. Dale, 89 Mo. 579, 1 S. W. Rep. 760. The witnesses would all have testified, in effect, that defendant was mentally and morally capable of understanding the......