State v. Newman

• Decision Date: 13 November 1912
• Citation: 245 Mo. 495,150 S.W. 1050
• Parties: STATE v. NEWMAN.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

150 S.W. 1050

245 Mo. 495

STATE v. NEWMAN.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

November 13, 1912.

1. ROBBERY (§ 23)—ADMISSION OF EVIDENCE.

In a prosecution for robbery, the owner of the house in which the crime was committed was properly allowed to testify that accused visited" his house the night before the robbery, in a pretended search for another, in order to show that accused was in the city less than 24 hours before the robbery, as being some slight evidence of guilt.

2. ROBBERY (§ 23)EVIDENCE—CORROBORATION.

Evidence by the owner of the house which was robbed that accused visited his home the night before the robbery, pretending to search for another, was admissible to corroborate the nurse at the house, who testified to seeing accused on that, and on his subsequent, visit, when the crime of robbery was committed.

3. CRIMINAL LAW (§ 823)—INSTRUCTIONS— ORAL INSTRUCTIONS.

Where, after the close of the evidence, a juror requested to see the man jointly indicted with accused, and to be informed whether prosecuting witness recovered the jewelry taken from her, it was not error to orally inform the jury that such additional information could not be given to them after the case was closed, without violating accused's rights, where the court specially instructed that failure to furnish the additional evidence desired should not raise a presumption of guilt.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; J. Hugo Grimm and Leo Rassieur, Judges. Frank Newman was convicted of robbery in the first degree, and he appeals. Affirmed.

Convicted in the circuit court of St. Louis city of the crime of robbery in the first degree, defendant appeals from a judgment of that court fixing his punishment at 10 years in the penitentiary.

Defendant was jointly indicted with one Charles Felchlin, but obtained a severance, and was separately tried.

On the part of the state, the evidence tends to prove that on May 27, 1910, between the hours of 2 and 3 p. m., defendant and one Charles Felchlin gained admission to the residence of Patrick Newman, in the city of St. Louis, by pretending to be employés of a telephone company desiring to inspect Mr. Newman's telephone. Upon entering the house, the defendant and his confederate, Felchlin, placed Mr. Newman's wife in fear by threatening her with revolvers, thereby compelling her to give up jewelry of the value of several hundred dollars, which defendant took away with him.

Defendant was identified by Mrs. Newman and her nurse as one of the parties who committed the robbery; also by Mr. Newman, who testified that defendant visited his home the night before the robbery, in a pretended search for another party.

No crime was committed or attempted during defendant's first visit to Newman's home.

The defense was an alibi, to support which two witnesses testified that defendant was at a doctor's office in another part of the city...