State v. Shepherd

• Decision Date: 02 February 1917
• Docket Number: No. 20002.,20002.
• Parties: STATE v. SHEPHERD.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

192 S.W. 427

STATE v. SHEPHERD.

No. 20002.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

February 2, 1917.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Pettis County; H. B. Shain, Judge.

Ira A. Shepherd was convicted of keeping a gambling table, and he appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Defendant was convicted of setting up and keeping a gambling device known as a crap table, and was sentenced to the penitentiary for a period of 3½ years. He has appealed.

The information charged that:

Defendant "did set up and keep a certain table commonly called a crap table in a room on the second floor of the building known as No. 112½ West Second street, in the city of Sedalia, Pettis county, Mo., said table being adapted, devised, and designed for the purpose of playing a certain game of chance commonly called craps, played with and by means of a certain gambling device called dice, for money, and did then and there unlawfully and feloniously entice, induce, and permit divers persons to play and bet upon and at said table and gambling device."

A demurrer to the information was overruled.

It is sufficient for the purposes of this appeal to state that the evidence tended to show that the defendant kept a room in which he kept a round table, on which was a cloth which had a drawstring to hold it in place on the table, and that he engaged with others in "shooting craps" on that table by means of dice, and that he received from the other players at such table money by way of a "cut" for the privilege allowed such other persons of playing at such games. The evidence is to the effect that the cloth was kept on the table to keep the dice from rolling off as much as they might otherwise do.

The state, over defendant's objection, was allowed to prove defendant's bad reputation as a gambler; the defendant not having attempted to establish a good reputation in that respect.

One Rice was charged under a separate information with the commission of the same crime based on the same facts. During the argument state's counsel commented on the fact that Rice was present in the courtroom during the trial and yet had not been put on the stand by defendant.

C. C. Kelly, of Sedalia, for appellant. John T. Barker, Atty. Gen., and Thomas J. Higgs, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

ROY, C. (after stating the facts as above).

I. The information does not sufficiently charge the keeping of "a gaming device" as forbidden by R. S. § 4750. There is no occasion to add to what was said in State v. Wade, 267 Mo. 249, 183 S. W. 598, by the court in banc. That case held that the court cannot take judicial notice of what a crap table is, and that it is not sufficient to describe it as "a table commonly called a crap table." The information in that case did not state that the crap table was devised for playing with dice as is the case here. But in State v. Harper, 190 S. W. 272, not yet...