The State v. Chapel

• Decision Date: 09 November 1893
• Citation: 23 S.W. 760,117 Mo. 639
• Parties: The State v. Chapel, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

23 S.W. 760

117 Mo. 639

The State v. Chapel, Appellant

Supreme Court of Missouri, Second Division

November 9, 1893

Appeal from Newton Circuit Court. -- J. C. Lampson, Judge.

Judgment reversed.

J. H Pratt for appellant.

(1) The indictment does not state of what the cheat, the fraud, the trick, the deception, the false and fraudulent representations and the bogus instrument of writing consisted, and does not furnish the accused the nature and cause of the accusation against him. It is a sacred right of the accused that he may know from the indictment of what he is charged and be prepared to meet the exact charge presented against him. State v. Pullens, 81 Mo. 387; State v. Clay, 81 Mo. 387; 100 Mo. 572; Bill of Rights, sec 22, art. 2; Bishop on Criminal Procedure, secs. 86, 88, 519. (2) It does not allege that Frank Featherstun, from whom the money was obtained, relied upon the representations made, nor that the representations were false, and defendant knew them to be so. State v. Evers, 49 Mo. 542; State v Sanders, 63 Mo. 482; State v. Bonnell, 46 Mo. 395; State v. Connor, 11 N.E. 454; Pattee v. State, 10 N.E. 421; State v. Delay, 5 S.W. 607.

R. F. Walker, Attorney General, for the state.

The indictment in this case is drawn under section 3826, Revised Statutes, 1889, which section has by this court been held unconstitutional. The indictment is insufficient, and the motion in arrest should have been sustained. It fails to notify the defendant of the charge he is required to defend, and does not charge the manner or means by which fraud was perpetrated and the money or property obtained. State v. Terry, 109 Mo. 601; State v. Benson, 110 Mo. 18; State v. Cameron, ante, p. 371.

OPINION

Sherwood, J.

-- The charging portion of the indictment under which the defendant was tried and convicted is as follows: "That, on or about the twenty-eighth day of September, 1892, at the county of Newton and state of Missouri, one, Marius Chapel, did then and there unlawful and feloniously, with intent to cheat and defraud, obtain from Frank Featherstun $ 14.60, lawful money of the United States of the value of $ 14.60 -- the money of Frank Featherstun -- by means and by use of a cheat, a fraud, a trick, a deception, a false and fraudulent representation and statement and false pretense, a bogus written instrument, contrary to the form of the statutes and against the peace and dignity of the state."

Under the ruling of this court in State v. Terry, 109 Mo 601, 19 S.W. 206; State v. Benson, 110 Mo. 18, 19 S.W. 213; State v. Cameron, ante, p. 371; ...