Waldon v. State

• Citation: 104 N.E. 300,182 Ind. 112
• Decision Date: 25 February 1914
• Docket Number: 22,457
• Parties: Waldon v. State of Indiana
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

104 N.E. 300

182 Ind. 112

Waldon v. State of Indiana

No. 22,457

Supreme Court of Indiana

February 25, 1914

Rehearing Denied June 24, 1914.

From Gibson Circuit Court; O. M. Welborn, Judge.

Prosecution by the State of Indiana against William Waldon. From a judgment of conviction, the defendant appeals.

Affirmed.

Woodfin D. Robinson and William E. Stilwell, for appellant.

Thomas M. Honan, Attorney-General, and Thomas H. Branaman, for the State.

OPINION

Spencer, J.

Appellant was tried and convicted of grand larceny. On appeal he has assigned error in overruling his motion for a new trial and under this assignment insists that the court erred in giving to the jury on its own motion instructions Nos. 10 and 11 and in refusing to give instructions Nos. 5, 10 and 17 tendered by appellant.

Instruction No. 11 given by the court reads as follows: "The charge in the indictment that the defendant William Waldon feloniously took and carried away the money, as well as each of the other material averments in the indictment, may be established by either direct or circumstantial evidence. If the evidence fairly shows that the defendant, Waldon, while traveling on an east bound passenger train on the Southern railway, and soon after leaving Mt. Carmel, Illinois, on the day named, observed that one Oscar Hochmeister had in his possession a large amount of money, bills and notes, which circulate as money, the money mentioned in the indictment that thereupon the defendant conferred with other persons and united and combined with such other persons for the purpose of feloniously taking and stealing said money from the said Hochmeister, when opportunity offered; that pursuant to and in furtherance of such unlawful purpose the other persons engaged in such unlawful combination on the approach of said train to this city, and while in this county, said other parties under pretence of making ready to alight from said train created a commotion among the passengers who were preparing to alight from the train, by violently jostling, shoving and jamming against the said Hochmeister, that the defendant Waldon was following close to said Hochmeister for the purpose of aiding and abetting said unlawful scheme and while during said commotion the defendant, or any one of the parties engaged in such unlawful combination, and in furtherance thereof, feloniously took and carried away the wallet containing said money from the said Hochmeister, in the view of the case here suggested the defendant should not be acquitted on the ground of a failure of the proof to show that the defendant, Waldon, is the person who actually took the wallet containing the money from the pocket of the said Hochmeister. The law is that where two or more persons unite and combine for the purpose of committing a larceny, such as feloniously stealing and carrying away the money of another person, the acts of each one of the parties in furtherance of and in carrying out the purposes of such unlawful combination, is chargeable to all of them alike."

It...