State v. Stockton
| Citation | 233 N.W. 307,181 Minn. 566 |
| Decision Date | 28 November 1930 |
| Docket Number | 28,200 |
| Parties | STATE v. ROBERT STOCKTON, ALIAS ROBERT CLARK |
| Court | Supreme Court of Minnesota (US) |
Defendant was convicted in the district court for Hennepin county of the crime of robbery in the first degree and appealed from an order, Reed, J. denying his motion for a new trial. Reversed.
Evidence of defendant's association with criminals inadmissible.
1. Evidence of defendant's association with others who were criminals was improperly admitted.
Comments of prosecutor prejudicial.
2. Comments of the prosecuting attorney upon defendant's association with "murderers and thieves" upon evidence improperly admitted held prejudicial.
Defendant's general character not put in issue.
3. Statement of defendant in cross-examination that he never robbed anybody does not put his general character in issue.
Revolver found later erroneously admitted.
4. Admission in evidence of a revolver found in defendant's desk six weeks after the commission of the crime of which he was accused held error.
Also license plates found in car used by defendant.
5. Admission of license plates found in a car in defendant's possession held improper.
Failure to define crime in charge disapproved.
6. Failure to define the crime with which defendant was charged is disapproved.
John J. O'Brien, for appellant.
Henry N. Benson, Attorney General, James E. Markham, deputy Attorney General, Floyd B. Olson, County Attorney, and Joseph A. Poirier, Assistant County Attorney, for the state.
Defendant was convicted of the crime of robbery in the first degree committed on the 18th day of February, 1929, in robbing a grocery store in the city of Minneapolis. The defendant was a convict out on parole at the time the robbery was committed. About two months after the robbery the defendant was returned to the state penitentiary for violation of his parole. He finished the sentence that he was then serving, and one year after the robbery was committed he was arrested and charged with the commission of the offense of which he was convicted in this proceeding. Upon the trial the proprietor of the grocery store and two young boys who were customers at the time that the robbery was committed were the principal witnesses against the defendant. They testified that he was one of the two men who robbed the store. Defendant denied that he took part in the robbery and attempted to show that he was at home with his foster father at the time the robbery was committed. Neither he nor his father could say definitely where he was at the hour of the robbery, but asserted that it was his usual custom to be at home at that time. The robbery took place at about 6:45 p.m. and the defendant's foster father testified that defendant always came home for supper. The evidence raised a definite question for the jury as to the identity of the defendant as one of the persons who took part in the robbery.
1-2. In cross-examining one of the witnesses for the state the defendant's counsel showed him the picture of a man by the name of Invie, who somewhat resembled the defendant, and asked the witness if that was the picture of the man who robbed the store. The witness responded that it was not. The picture was not then offered in evidence. Upon cross-examination of the defendant the prosecuting attorney then inquired, over the objection of the defendant's counsel, who Invie was and where he was. This elicited the response that Invie was a prisoner in a Pennsylvania penitentiary serving a sentence for murder and that the defendant had in April, 1929, gone down to Pennsylvania for the purpose of taking money for the defense of Invie and two other men by the name of Halverson and Bard, who were evidently indicted for the same offense. There was no showing whatever that any of these three men had any connection with the Minneapolis crime, and the state went into this matter for the purpose of discrediting the defendant on account of his associations with these three men whom he admitted to be his friends. The defendant assigned as error the admission of this testimony over his objection. He also assigned as error the conduct of the prosecuting attorney in his reference to these men as associates of the defendant in his closing remarks to the jury. Amongst other things the prosecutor said:
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