State v. Kelly
| Decision Date | 23 November 1926 |
| Docket Number | 37652 |
| Citation | 210 N.W. 903,202 Iowa 729 |
| Parties | STATE OF IOWA, Appellee, v. CHARLES P. KELLY, Appellant |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Polk District Court.--HUBERT UTTERBACK, Judge.
The defendant was tried and convicted of the crime of entering a bank with intent to rob. From a judgment sentencing him to the penitentiary at Fort Madison for life, he appeals.
Affirmed.
Charles P. Howard, for appellant.
Ben J Gibson, Attorney-general, Neill Garrett, Assistant Attorney-general, Vernon R. Seeburger, County Attorney, and Loy Ladd, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee.
DE GRAFF, C. J.
The indictment charges, in substance, that Joe Wagner, Frank Vavario, Charles P. Kelly, and Bruce Casady, on the 27th day of May, 1925, in the county of Polk and state of Iowa, did willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously enter the premises of the Cottage Grove State Bank, a corporation duly organized and authorized to do a general banking business under the laws of the state of Iowa, with the unlawful and felonious intent then and there, on the part of the defendants named, to hold up and rob the said Cottage Grove State Bank of the money, currency, and other things of value belonging to said bank. The indictment is based on Section 13002, Code of 1924.
The defendants were tried separately, and this appeal is a companion case to State v. Wagner, 202 Iowa 739, 210 N.W. 901, and State v. Shaw, 202 Iowa 632, 210 N.W 901.
The primary proposition urged by the appellant Kelly has to do with the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict and with certain rulings on objections to evidence. The jury was warranted in finding that the defendant Kelly, with Wagner, Vavario, and Casady, left Kansas City in a Marmon touring car, and arrived in Des Moines early on the morning of May 25, 1925. The car was placed in a garage, and these men went to the Cargill Hotel, near Seventh and Grand Avenue, where they registered under assumed names, and were assigned rooms. On that day and the following day they were seen about the city. The mechanics at the garage where the car was stored identified these men as the parties who had the car in the garage for repair. In the pocket of the car door at the left of the driver's seat, a revolver was discovered by one of the mechanics working on the car, which revolver was subsequently found in the car at the time of the arrest of Wagner and Vavario, near Avenue City, Missouri.
It further appears that, after the arrival of these men in Des Moines, they met Harry Shaw, a colored man, and it was arranged that Shaw should accompany them to the west end of the residential section of the city of Des Moines. There a Paige sedan was stolen, which was used the next day in consummating the robbery of the bank.
About 9 o'clock on May 27, 1925, the Kansas City men checked out of the Cargill hotel, taking with them a towel which had thereon the word "Cargill." After leaving the hotel, these men picked up Shaw, and procured the Paige car. The Marmon car was taken to the south west corner of Twenty-fourth Street and Woodland Avenue, where it was parked headed south on Twenty-fourth Street. Shaw was left in the custody of the Marmon. The other four then drove the Paige to Nineteenth and Cottage Grove Avenue, where Kelly, Vavario, and Casady left the car. Wagner remained in the car, and after Kelly and the other two had entered the bank, Wagner drove the Paige to the front of the bank door, where he remained in waiting. Kelly and Vavario went to the tellers' windows, drew guns, and ordered the employees of the bank to lie on the floor. Casady went behind the counter, and proceeded to collect the money. At that time, Mrs. Miner, an employee of the bank, happened to be in the vault, and attempted to release a burglar alarm, which failed to respond. She then left the...
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