State v. Stricker

• Decision Date: 22 June 1923
• Docket Number: No. 35077.,35077.
• Citation: 196 Iowa 290,194 N.W. 60
• Parties: STATE v. STRICKER ET AL.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

196 Iowa 290

194 N.W. 60

STATE

v.STRICKER ET AL.

No. 35077.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

June 22, 1923.

Appeal from District Court, Black Hawk County; George W. Wood, Judge.

Defendants were indicted jointly for the crime of gambling nuisance. Defendants John Weller and Earl Stricker entered pleas of guilty and were sentenced. Weller was sentenced to six months in the county jail and Stricker for a period of nine months. Defendant Chapman entered plea of not guilty, waived trial by jury, and was found guilty on trial by the court and sentenced to a term of six months in the county jail. All defendants appeal. Judgment of the trial court is affirmed as to defendants Weller and Stricker, and reversed as to defendant Chapman. Affirmed in part, and reversed in part.J. C. Murtagh, of Waterloo, for appellants.

Ben J. Gibson, Atty. Gen., and Maxwell A. O'Brien, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Walter R. French, Co. Atty., of Waterloo, for the State.

ARTHUR, J.

Errors relied upon by defendants Weller and Stricker are that there is no finding by the court of guilt or conviction; that the judgments are so indefinite and uncertain that they are void; that the judgments are indefinite as there is no provision in said judgments when sentence is to commence or expire; that the sentences of defendants of six and nine months in the county jail are so severe and unusual that they should be set aside.

The error assigned by defendant Chapman is that the court acted beyond its jurisdiction in finding him guilty and imposing sentence upon him without trial by jury.

[1][2] I. Errors claimed by defendants Weller and Stricker are wholly without merit. Defendants complain that there is no judicial determination of the guilt of defendants. It is sufficient to say on this point that each of these defendants entered a plea of guilty and record was made of the entering of such pleas, and judgments entered on the pleas, which record constitutes judicial determination of guilt. The judgments as to these defendants are not indefinite. It is true that the record does not recite the particular time when the sentences shall commence and when they shall end, but it does specify the length of time of such sentences, and that is sufficient on that point.

[3] II. The serious complaint by defendants Weller and Stricker, the one most strenuously insisted upon, is that the sentences imposed are unusual and too severe. What we said on this point in State v. Williams, 191 N. W. 790, is...