Steerman v. State

• Decision Date: 31 March 1847
• Parties: STEERMAN v. THE STATE.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

10 Mo. 503

STEERMAN

v.THE STATE.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1847.

APPEAL FROM ST. LOUIS CRIMINAL COURT.

HENDERSON, for Appellant.

STRINGFELLOW, Attorney-General, for The State.

MCBRIDE, J.

At the January term, 1846, George W. Steerman was indicted by the grant jury of St. Louis county, for grand larceny, and on a trial being had, was found guilty. He then filed a motion to set aside the verdict and grant him a new trial, for the following reasons: 1. Because the instructions of the court to the jury were erroneous. 2. Because the court refused to give the instructions asked by the counsel for the said defendant. 3. Because there was a material variance between the charge and the proof in the indictment. 4. Because the verdict was against the evidence. 5. Because this court has not jurisdiction of the offense as proved, the same not being committed on a river within the State of Missouri; which being overruled by the court, the defendant excepted, and judgment having been entered against him, he has brought the case here by appeal.

The indictment charges, “that George W. Steerman and Abraham Chavoisse, late of said county, laborers, on the first day of October last past, at St. Louis county aforesaid, one black cloth coat of the value of $30; one black satin vest of the value of $8, &c., &c., enumerating divers articles of clothing, a watch and money amounting in all to $880; all the goods, chattels, money and property of one Adam B. Chambers, then and there being found, feloniously did steal, take and carry away, contrary to the form of the statute,” &c.

The bill of exceptions contains the following summary of the evidence given upon the trial in the Criminal Court. The State proved that George W. Steerman the defendant, stole the property charged in the indictment against said defendant, as the property of Adam B. Chambers, and the said property was stolen by said defendant on board the steamboat Die Vernon, on her trip down the Mississippi river, from Quincy, in the State of Illinois, to St. Louis city; and that said larceny was committed by said defendant during the month of October last, either whilst said Die Vernon was at the landing in Clarksville, in Pike county, Missouri, or it was committed by said defendant on board of said steamboat, a short time after said boat had left Clarksville, in Pike county, Missonri, on its voyage down the said Mississippi river to the city of St. Louis.

The counsel for the defendant then asked the court to instruct the jury: “That if they believe from the evidence that the property charged in the indictment against the defendant on the trial, as the property of one Adam B. Chambers, was taken out of the county of St. Louis, where the venue of said larceny is laid, they will acquit the defendant on the said indictment in its present form.” Which said instruction the court refused to give, whereupon the defendant excepted.

In lieu of the foregoing instruction the court charged the jury, “that if...