State v. Johnson

• Decision Date: 19 February 1930
• Docket Number: 29837
• Citation: State v. Johnson, 26 S.W.2d 793 (Mo. 1930)
• Parties: STATE v. JOHNSON
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

26 S.W.2d 793

STATE v. JOHNSON

No. 29837

Supreme Court of Missouri, Second Division

February 19, 1930

Rehearing overruled April 7, 1930.

Stratton Shartel, Atty. Gen., and Walter E. Sloat, Sp. Asst. Atty Gen., for the State.

OPINION

HENWOOD, C.

By an indictment filed in the circuit court of the city of St Louis, the defendant was charged with murder in the first degree.He was convicted of murder in the second degree and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for 25 years, and appealed.

Only the record proper is here for review, the defendant having failed to file a bill of exceptions.Nor has the defendant favored us with a brief.

The indictment and the verdict, omitting the caption of each read as follows:

'The Grand Jurors of the State of Missouri, within and for the body of the City of St. Louis now here in Court, duly impaneled, sworn and charged, upon their oath present, That Jim Johnson on the 17th day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight, at the City of St. Louis aforesaid, with force and arms, in and upon one David Stanton in the peace of the State then and there being feloniously, willfully, deliberately, premeditatedly, and of his malice aforethought, did make an assault; and that the said Jim Johnson a certain pistol then and there charged with gunpowder and one metal bullet, then and there feloniously willfully, deliberately, premeditatedly, and of his malice aforethought, did discharge and shoot off, to, at, against and upon the said David Stanton; and that the said Jim Johnson with the metal bullet aforesaid, out of the pistol aforesaid, then and there by the force of the gunpowder aforesaid, by the said Jim Johnson discharged and shot off, as aforesaid, then and there feloniously, willfully, deliberately, premeditatedly, and of his malice aforethought, did strike, penetrate and wound the said David Stanton in and upon the head and body of the said David Stanton giving to the said David Stanton then and there, with the metal bullet aforesaid, so as aforesaid discharged and shot out of the pistol aforesaid by the said Jim Johnson in and upon the head and body of the said David Stanton one mortal wound of the depth of six inches, and of the breadth of half an inch; on which said 17th day of January, A. D., 1928, the said David Stanton of the said mortal wound, at the said City of St. Louis, did die.And so the Grand Jurors...