State v. Mathis

• Decision Date: 19 November 1907
• Citation: 105 S.W. 604,206 Mo. 604
• Parties: STATE v. MATHIS.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

105 S.W. 604

206 Mo. 604

STATE v. MATHIS.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

November 19, 1907.

1. GAMING — OFFENSE — STATUTORY PROVISIONS—DEVICES INCLUDED.

Rev. St. 1899, § 2194 [Ann. St. 1906, p. 1404], as amended by Acts 1901, p. 130, providing for the punishment of "every person who shall set up or keep any table or gaming device commonly called A B C, faro bank, E O, roulette, equality, keno, slot machine, stand or device of whatever pattern, kind, or make, or however worked, operated, or manipulated, or any kind of gambling table or gambling device adapted, devised, and designed for the purpose of playing any game of chance for money or property," etc., includes setting up and keeping a poker table, though it is not specifically mentioned therein.

2. SAME—INDICTMENT—SPECIAL ADAPTABILITY OF DEVICE—POKER TABLE.

Under such statute, it is not necessary, in a prosecution for setting up and keeping a poker table, to show that the table was especially adapted, devised, and designed for the purpose of playing poker alone; but it is sufficient if it was designed for the purpose of playing any game of chance for money and property, and the accused permitted persons to bet and play thereon.

3. SAME — CARDS AND NOT TABLE THE DEVICE.

Under such statute, in a prosecution for setting up and keeping a poker table, the fact that the game of poker cannot be played by means of the table alone, and that the thing the game is played with is a pack of cards, is no defense.

4. SAME — ADMISSION OF EVIDENCE — CRAP GAME.

In a prosecution for setting up and keeping gaming tables and gambling devices, admission of evidence that a game of craps was conducted in the place, without showing that it was played on a crap table adapted, devised, and designed for that purpose, was not error, where the evidence was conclusive that the game of craps was played on a table set up or kept by accused, and that he permitted persons to play or bet thereon.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Newton County; F. C. Johnston, Judge.

Grant Mathis was convicted of setting up and keeping gambling devices, etc., and appeals. Affirmed.

Clay & Sheppard, for appellant. The Attorney General and N. T. Gentry, for the State.

BURGESS, J.

At the April term, 1906, of the circuit court of Newton county, the defendant was convicted of the crime of setting up and keeping divers gaming tables and gambling devices, to wit, two poker tables and one crap table, which were adapted, devised, and designed for the purpose of playing games of chance for money and property. The conviction was under the second count of an indictment charging defendant with said offense, and the punishment assessed was five years in the penitentiary. After filing unsuccessful motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment, the defendant appealed.

The evidence on the part of the state tended to prove that there was a building, known as the "Belmont Block," situated in the city of Neosho, Newton county, Mo., and that in the summer of 1905 there were two upstairs rooms in said building which defendant occupied and called his office. One witness, Lou Ellis, did some work for the defendant, and visited his home for the purpose of collecting the money owing him for said work. Defendant told him to come to his office and get paid. Witness went to said Belmont Block building, where he was directed to the office of the defendant. He found the door locked, but the defendant unlocked it and admitted him. There was another man besides the defendant in the room. In that room were three tables, one square-shaped and two round tables, each having a canvas cover. After being paid the amount of his bill, Ellis engaged in a game of poker with defendant and the other man, and remained there seven hours. Ellis bought $5 worth of poker chips from the defendant, paying him money therefor, and after losing on the game he again bought $5 worth of chips. Losing the second time, he bought $10 worth of chips from the defendant, which he also lost. At various times during the progress of the game Ellis heard knocks at the door. Each time the defendant got up, went to the door, and peeped through the keyhole, but did not allow anybody to enter. The poker table at which Ellis and his companions played had a drawer in it and also a slot on the top, through which slot chips were dropped into the drawer by players at the game; the chips dropped through becoming the operator's "rake-off." Witness Ellis also testified that, during the game that they there played, defendant sat on one side of the poker table, about where the drawer was, and that Ellis and the other man sat on the other side of the table opposite the defendant, that the defendant kept the chips and decks of cards in the drawer, and that the defendant had charge of the decks and also charge of the chips. He further testified that they used the chips to bet with, instead of money, and that after the game was over the chips were cashed; the defendant cashing the chips. Elbert Oliver, a boy of 19, testified that he knew the defendant and had visited his place of business in the Belmont Block along in the summer of 1905, and that he met the defendant and several others in those upstairs rooms at night. He further testified to the fact that the door was locked and that some one on the inside responded to his knock. On that night this witness, the defendant, and others played a game of craps on one of these tables, using dice and betting money. John Pickins, a boy of 15, testified that he, too, visited the defendant's apartments in the Belmont Block and saw men shooting craps there on a table, using dice. He said nobody invited him to go up there. He "just followed the gang." After the proper knock was made on this door, some one from within unlocked it and let them in. This witness lost 35 cents on the game of craps, which he said was played on a table that had black oilcloth, or something of that kind, over the top. The city marshal of Neosho, Mr. B. J. Peraman, and Sheriff John B. Beavers, raided the Belmont Block one night in the summer of 1905, but before forcing an entrance they climbed up in a chair and peeped in over the transom. They saw the defendant, Elbert Oliver, Claude Flemming, and others in the room gambling and shooting craps. The defendant was sitting on one side of the table, and the others were sitting on the other side of the table, facing him, rolling dice, and throwing money on the table. There were three tables in the room, and each one had a cloth cover. Two of the tables were covered alike, but one had a white cover. After watching this for a little while, the officers went away and came back later that night. By this time the defendant and his associates were making considerably more noise. The officers heard the dice and money falling upon the table, and the...