State v. Rogers, 50114
| Decision Date | 13 July 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 2,No. 50114,50114,2 |
| Citation | 380 S.W.2d 398 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Robert M. ROGERS, Appellant |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Thomas F. Eagleton, Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, Pendleton Goodall, Jr., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., St. Louis, for respondent.
Roy W. Brown, Compton & Brown, Kansas City, for appellant.
This is an appeal from a conviction of attempted burglary of a jewelry store. The punishment assessed by the jury is imprisonment for a term of two years. Sections 556.150 and 560.070, RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S. The defendant was represented by able counsel at the trial as he is on appeal. The principal question presented in this court relates to the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the conviction.
Hale's Credit Jewelry Store owned and operated by Ralph W. Hale was located in what is known as the Country Club Shopping Center in Clay County. At 2:30 a. m. on August 8, 1962, Patrolman Willard Malden of the Kansas City Police Department saw a 1962 Pontiac convertible automobile with a white top and a brown body drive across the parking lot in front of his headlights as he was turning into the shopping center to check the buildings. Street lights were on and the lights of the patrol car were on high beam. Patrolman Malden saw three men in the Pontiac automobile, but he did not recognize any of them. He checked all the buildings in the shopping center including the jewelry store and found them to be locked and secure.
At 3:20 a. m. Patrolman Malden drove back by the shopping center and again saw the sam Pontiac automobile in the shopping center parked over in the corner in front of Hale's Jewelry Store with its lights out. Two people were outside the car or proceeding to get into it. The patrolman had not intended to enter the shopping center and by the time he turned around and came back the persons had entered the Pontiac automobile and it had moved to the back side of the parking lot near a drug store. The patroman called an assisting car and checked the Pontiac car and its three occupants. They were Edward Motter, the defendant Rogers, and Sidney Hancock, the owner of the automobile who was driving it. The patrolman saw the defendant Rogers get out but he did not recall where Motter and the defendant were seated in the automobile. In response to a question from the patrolman, the defendant Rogers said that he was over in a corner of the shopping center 'where it was partly dark to relieve himself.' Motter said that he was looking for a phone booth to call his mother because he was bringing some gentlemen home with him to spend the night and he wanted to let her know. Hancock stated that he wasn't familiar with the area and was just driving the other two gentlemen around. Patrolman Malden and the assisting officer found nothing in the Pontiac automobile and they released the car and its occupants at approximately 3:30 a. m.
Patrolman Malden contacted his superior officer, Sergeant William Hutcherson, at 3:35 a. m. and reported the incident. The sergeant recognized the name of Motter, one of the occupants of the Pontiac, and he and Patrolman Malden went back to the shopping center to check the buildings. They found that a cylinder-type lock had been removed from the door of Hale's Credit Jewelry Store and there were pry marks between the door and the frame. The lock, a pair of gloves, and a white pillow case were laying out in the parking lot in front of the jewelry store. The pillow case and gloves were not on the parking lot when Patrolman Malden first checked the buildings at 2:30 a. m. The second time he checked the locks of the buildings was at 3:40 a. m., an hour and ten minutes after the first check. The patrolman was positive that Hancock was driving the car on both occasions but he could not definitely testify that the defendant was in the automobile on the first occasion. The place where the car was searched was approximately 75 to 80 feet from the jewelry store. None of the stores were open and there were no other cars on the lot at the time. The police officers did not check the buildings when the car was searched and the men were interrogated at 3:30 a. m. The patrolman could not testify whether the items were or were not laying in the parking lot when he stopped the men and searched the car. An officer from the Police Laboratory went to the shopping center and took pictures of the door of the jewelry store and the objects on the pavement but was unable to find any fingerprints. At the close of the case, defendant moved for a directed verdict of acquittal which was refused. The defendant did not testify or...
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...could find the issue in harmony therewith.' State v. Gregory, 339 Mo. 133, 96 S.W.2d 47, 51--52 (1936). He also cites State v. Rogers, 380 S.W.2d 398 (Mo.1964), that circumstantial evidence which showed merely an opportunity to commit the crime and created merely a strong suspicion of guilt......
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...us to discharge him because there is no showing that the state has not had an opportunity to develop its case fully, citing State v. Rogers, Mo., 380 S.W.2d 398, and State v. Walker, Mo., 365 S.W.2d 597. The state argues for a remand on the ground that the girl's age could be proved by othe......
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