State v. Laster
| Decision Date | 06 March 1905 |
| Citation | 60 A. 361,71 N.J.L. 586 |
| Parties | STATE v. LASTER. |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
(Syllabus by the Court.)
Error to Court of Oyer and Terminer, Passaic County.
Arthur Laster was convicted of murder, and brings error. Affirmed.
Peter J. McGinnis, for plaintiff in error. Eugene Emley, for the State.
The plaintiff in error was convicted of murder in the first degree in the Passaic oyer, and the judgment upon that verdict is here for review. Many grounds are alleged for reversal, but only a few of them are of sufficient importance to require notice.
At the time of the prisoner's arrest there were found upon his person a revolver, a rope, a bottle with some liquid in it, and some pawn tickets. At the trial all these were fully identified by Officers Gault and Saiter, and all were offered in evidence by the state and admitted by the court. It is claimed that the admission of any of these articles except the revolver was erroneous. The contention on the part of the plaintiff in error is that it was prejudicial to the prisoner to have articles introduced in evidence which had been found upon his person, but which did not have any direct relation to the crime with which he was charged. The revolver, they concede, was admissible, because death resulted from a gunshot wound alleged to have been the result of the discharge of a revolver in the hands of the prisoner. All the articles in evidence were voluntarily surrendered by the prisoner at the time of his arrest, and, while it may be true that they were not, with the exception of the revolver, of any materiality in the state's case, it is equally true that their introduction in evidence by the state was a frank presentation to the court and jury of all the property given up by the prisoner, in the same condition in which it had been received. Such articles thus recovered are admissible in evidence. The prisoner cannot complain because the state put all the articles in evidence. A complaint that the state had put some of many articles found upon the prisoner in evidence would be much more forceful. The state made a frank disclosure of everything taken from the prisoner's person, and these were just as admissible as would have been an offer in evidence of the coat the prisoner wore, or the watch he carried, on the day of the murder. Commonwealth v. Williams, 2 Cush. 582 (585). There was no error in admitting these articles.
Another exception relates to the admission in evidence of the cries of made by the deceased just before he was shot, and to the reference to that evidence by the trial justice in the charge. A brief reference to the facts is necessary. Just before the prisoner fired the fatal shot he was seen to...
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State v. Deegan.
...the defendant had chosen to deny such purpose. They were part of the res gestae and admissible as part of the State's case. State v. Laster, 71 N.J.L. 586, 60 A. 361; State v. Morehous, 97 N.J.L. 285, 117 A. 296, 300. The next point has to do with the trial judge's sustaining an objection b......
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State v. Martinek
...evidence to implicate him, on the premises of a co-conspirator.' 22 C.J.S., Criminal Law, § 710, page 1206; State v. Laster, 71 N.J.L. 586, 60 A. 361 (E. & A.1905); State v. Morehous, 97 N.J.L. 285, 117 A. 296 (E. & A.1922); State v. Sage, 99 N.J.L. 229, 122 A. 827 (E. & A.1923); State v. H......
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State v. Rusnak
...time of the killing, and the cartridges were of the caliber and size to fit the revolver with which the killing was done. State v. Laster, 71 N. J. Law, 586, 60 A. 361; State v. Hill, 65 N. J. Law, 626, 47 A. The defendant next argues that the trial judge erred "in not striking from the rec......
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State v. Manno, A--605
...118 A. 927 (E. & A.1922); State v. Cerciello, 86 N.J.L. 309, 312, 90 A. 1112, 52 L.R.A.,N.S., 1010 (E. & A.1914); State v. Laster, 71 N.J.L. 586, 60 A. 361 (E. & A.1905); State v. Bloom, 167 A. 221, 11 N.J.Misc. 522 (Sup.Ct.1933). In the light of the failure to object, the voluntary stateme......