Stenz v. Sandstrom

• Decision Date: 13 December 1955
• Citation: 118 A.2d 900,143 Conn. 72
• Parties: Willard H. STENZ v. Walter A. SANDSTROM, Chief of Police of the Town of West Hartford. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court

Page 900

118 A.2d 900

143 Conn. 72

Willard H. STENZ v. Walter A. SANDSTROM, Chief of Police of the Town of West Hartford.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

Dec. 13, 1955.

George Schwolsky, Hartford, with whom, on the brief, was John W. Joy, Hartford, for appellant (plaintiff).

Douglass B. Wright, Asst. State's Atty., Hartford, with whom, on the brief, was Albert S. Bill, State's Atty., Hartford, for appellee (defendant).

Before INGLIS, C. J., and BALDWIN, O'SULLIVAN, WYNNE and DALY, JJ.

INGLIS, Chief Justice.

In this habeas corpus proceeding, the defendant made return to the writ that he was holding the plaintiff pursuant to a warrant issued by the governor of this state. The warrant directs him to arrest the plaintiff and deliver him into the custody of certain officials of the state of New Jersey who are authorized to receive him and convey him to that state as a fugitive from justice. In the reply, the plaintiff alleged that the governor's warrant was null and void because the plaintiff was not in New Jersey on the date when the crime for which he was being extradited was committed and therefore was not a fugitive from justice.

The trial court was clearly warranted in finding the following facts: The plaintiff is being held by the defendant for extradition to New Jersey to answer a criminal complaint charging that on October 22, 1953, he violated a New Jersey statute which makes it a crime for a husband or parent to desert or to wilfully neglect to provide for the support and maintenance of his wife or his minor child or children in necessitous circumstances. On January 10, 1951, the plaintiff and Helen R. Stenz were divorced in New Jersey. In the divorce decree, the plaintiff was ordered to pay $40 a week as alimony and for the support of a minor child of the couple. On September 13, 1953, he left New Jersey. He moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, and has lived there continuously ever since. When he left New Jersey, he was in arrears in his payments of alimony and support to the amount of $1787. His former wife, with whom the child was living, was then in necessitous circumstances.

On these facts, the court concluded that the plaintiff was a fugitive from justice at the time of his arrest and that the governor's warrant upon which he was being held was properly issued. Judgment was rendered dismissing the writ and remanding the plaintiff to the custody of the defendant. From this judgment the plaintiff has appealed. The gist of his claim is that inasmuch as on October 22, 1953, the date stated in the criminal complaint as being the date when the crime was committed, he was in Connecticut and had been here since the preceding September 13, he was not a fugitive from justice.

It is, of course, true that a governor has no jurisdiction to issue a warrant for the return to a demanding state of a person charged with a crime unless there is probable cause that the person is a fugitive from justice. In order for him to be a fugitive, it is essential that he was in the demanding state at the time the crime for which he is being extradited was actually committed. Taft v. Lord, 92 Conn. 539, 542, 103 A. 644, L.R.A.1918E, 545, and cases cited; Ross v. Crofutt, 84 Conn. 370, 373, 80 A. 90; Illinois ex rel. McNichols v. Pease, 207 U.S. 100, 108, 28 S.Ct. 58, 52 L.Ed. 121. It is well established, however, that ordinarily it is not essential in a criminal prosecution that the crime be proved to have been committed on the date alleged in the information or indictment. State v. Ferris, 81 Conn. 97, 99, 70 A. 587. It is competent ordinarily for the prosecution to prove the commission of the crime charged at any time prior to the date of the complaint and within the period fixed by the Statute of Limitations. State v. Horton, 132 Conn. 276, 277,...