Steffler v. State, 28694
| Citation | 230 Ind. 557,104 N.E.2d 729 |
| Decision Date | 02 April 1952 |
| Docket Number | No. 28694,28694 |
| Parties | STEFFLER et al. v. STATE. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Indiana |
Nelson Bohannan, Anderson, Waldo C. Ging, Greenfield, Frederick F. McClellan, Jr., Clarence E. Benadum, Muncie, for appellants.
J. Emmett McManamon, Atty. Gen., George W. Hand, John Ready O'Connor, Deputy Attys. Gen., Melville E. Watson Pros., 18th Judicial Circuit, Greenfield, for appellee.
Appellants were jointly charged by an affidavit in two counts with conspiracy to commit grand larceny and automobile banditry. The jury returned verdicts that each appellant was guilty on both counts as charged, upon which judgments were entered, from which this appeal is prosecuted. Appellants have specifically waived any error of the trial court in overruling their motion in arrest of judgment. The errors properly presented here for our consideration were the two causes in the motion for a new trial, which asserted the verdicts were not sustained by sufficient evidence and were contrary to law. At the close of the state's evidence in chief, the appellants rested without either appellant taking the witness stand, and without introduction of any other evidence in their behalf.
After conviction this court does not weigh the evidence but considers only the facts in the record most favorable to the state together with all reasonable inferences that may be drawn therefrom. Badgley v. State, 1948, 226 Ind. 665, 82 N.E.2d 841; Keith v. State, 1901, 157 Ind. 376, 61 N.E. 716.
When the evidence is so considered, the jury had the right to find the facts as follows: After midnight and before 3:00 o'clock the early morning of Thanksgiving, November 24, 1949, the storeroom owned by the Fortville Furniture, Inc., of Fortville, which is located in the northwest corner of Hancock County, was broken and entered and furniture of the value of at least $1,200 was stolen and loaded on the truck of Fortville Furniture, Inc., which was located in the garage back of the store building.
At about 3:30 o'clock that Thanksgiving morning, John Randall, who resided on a farm about five miles northwest of Pendleton on State Road No. 38, was awakened by the sound of a motor vehicle engine on his driveway, which extended from State Road No. 38 for about 1,000 feet north to his home, barn and outbuildings, where the driveway made a complete U turn. When Randall first looked out he saw the truck of Fortville Furniture, Inc., which was unlighted on his driveway, in the light of a four door 1949 Oldsmobile convertible which had its top up. The tail lights on the convertible were large, rectangular in shape, set wide apart and set in the rear fenders in a vertical position. The truck, followed by the car, continued down his driveway and turned left on road No. 38. Randall dressed and drove his own car in pursuit of the truck and convertible, which then turned north on a county road to a T intersection where both the vehicles turned to the east in Madison County. The truck was stopped momentarily and left on the side of this county road, where the convertible stopped momentarily and then proceeded east to State Road No. 132, and then turned to the left toward the town of Lapel. Randall continued in pursuit but lost sight of the convertible in Lapel. Randall then started to return down road No. 132, when he saw the convertible again under a street light at the edge of Lapel as it was proceeding southeast toward Pendleton. At Pendleton Randall followed the convertible on old State Road No. 9 and pursued the car as it fled on State Road No. 9 and 67 toward Anderson, but in the traffic Randall lost sight of the Oldsmobile.
Randall then returned to Pendleton where he awakened Officer Epperson of the Indiana State Police force. Epperson followed Randall back toward the place the Fortville Furniture truck was located, and as the cars turned left on the county road both Randall and Epperson saw the Fortville Furniture truck in the headlights of a vehicle behind it, which immediately pulled around the truck and proceeded to meet them. Randall signalled Epperson by blinking his lights, and after Randall had passed the Oldsmobile Epperson threw his police car crosswise in the road, turned on his red light and got out of his police car to make the arrest. The Oldsmobile stopped, and upon Epperson's command, the three appellants left the Oldsmobile with their hands up and submitted to arrest. One of the appellants stated they had been hunting rabbits with a spotlight. At the direction of Epperson, Randall searched the convertible in which was found six pairs of gloves, two flashlights, a wrecking bar, a loaded shotgun, a loaded .22 rifle, some small drills, a glass cutter and two shotgun shells. Each appellant was searched by Epperson and his belongings thereafter kept by the officers. The search of the trunk of the car later at the Police Barracks at Pendleton Post disclosed a dead rabbit in the trunk.
The truck had been moved about 1,500 feet east from the place it was first abandoned, its headlights were still off, but the motor was running. A jumper connection had been used to by-pass the ignition switch. Later the same day another pair of gloves was found on the road near the place where the truck had been stopped. The appellants, the Oldsmobile convertible, which belonged to the wife of one appellant, and the truck were taken to the State Police Post at Pendleton. An attempt was made to find fingerprints, but only illegible smudged fingerprints were found on some of the furniture. Later appellant Blackwood was removed to the Madison County jail at Anderson.
Walter Fort, the Chief of Police of Fortville, the same evening found a cigarette lighter on the ground in the garage where the furniture truck was located the night of the theft. This was initialed by three of the officers and put with other belongings that belonged to appellant Blackwood. Sheriff Brogden of Madison County, who had charge of Blackwood and his belongings, placed the lighter with the belongings and put them on the table and asked Blackwood if the items were all his. Blackwood said, 'Yes.' Several more times he identified all the belongings as his property, and several times while in jail awaiting trial asked for this lighter.
A yellow chenille rug had been stolen and was in the truck. Samples of lint were taken from some of the clothing worn by appellants, and the witness Duncan, a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the Bureau's laboratory in Washington, made an examination of the lint and fibers from the rug and clothing, and gave it as his opinion that some of the samples were similar, although he could not positively state the specimens had all come from the same source.
There is no necessity for an exhaustive review of the authorities on evidence sufficient to sustain a conviction on a charge of conspiracy. Evidence that merely shows relationship or association between the parties or evidence which merely establishes a suspicion of guilt, will not sustain a conviction. Coughlin v. State, 1950, 228 Ind. 393, 92 N.E.2d 718. But as stated in this case, 228 Ind. at page 395, 92 N.E.2d at page 719.
A conspiracy can seldom be established by direct evidence of the unlawful agreement. But as stated in Brewster v. State, 1917, 186 Ind. 369, 372, 115 N.E. 54, 55, "Conspiracies need not be established by direct evidence of the acts charged, but may, and generally must, be proved by a number of indefinite acts, conditions, and circumstances which vary according to the purposes to be accomplished. The very existence of a conspiracy is generally a matter of inference deduced from certain acts of the persons accused, done in pursuance of an apparently criminal or unlawful purpose in common between them. The existence of the agreement or joint assent of the minds need not be proved directly. It may be inferred by the jury from other facts proved. It is not necessary to prove that the defendants came together and actually agreed in terms to have the unlawful purpose, and to pursue it by common means. If it be proved that the defendants pursued by their acts the same object, often by the same means, one performing one part and another another part of the same so as to complete it, with a view to the attainment of that same object, the jury will be justified in the conclusion that they were engaged in a conspiracy to effect that object. If, therefore, one concurs in a conspiracy, no proof of an agreement to concur is necessary in order to make him guilty.' 5 R.C.L. 1088, § 37, and authorities cited. See, also, Eacock v. State (1907), 169 Ind. 488, 502, 82 N.E. 1039; Cook v. State (1907), 169 Ind. 430, 433, 82 N.E. 1047; McKee v. State (1887), 111 Ind. 378, 383, 12 N.E. 510; Archer v. State (1886), 106 Ind. 426, 432, 7 N.E. 225.'
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