22 Wash. 551 | Wash. | 1900
The opihion of the court was delivered by
The indictment in this case charges the appellant and one John Hildebrand with the crime of robbery, alleging that said appellant and Hildebrand, in Pierce county, “on the 3d day of July, 1899, then and there being, unlawfully and feloniously and forcibly did make an assault upon one George Hyde and then and there four dollars and twenty-five cents, lawful money of the United States of the value of four dollars and twenty-five cents, then and there being the personal property of him, the said George Hyde, from the person and against the will of the said George Hyde, feloniously, unlawfully, forcibly, by violence, and by putting the said George Hyde in fear, did take, steal, and carry away, with intent then and there the said property aforesaid feloniously to steal, contrary,” etc.
At the close of the testimony for the state, appellant moved the discharge of the appellant. Further on in this opinion we will discuss the points raised by this motion.
The appellant, after trial and verdict, filed a motion in arrest of judgment. One reason urged was, “Illegal proceedings of the grand jury in procuring evidence upon which to base grounds for the indictment.” To sustain this motion, the appellant filed his own affidavit, to the effect that on two occasions he was brought before the grand jury who found the indictment, and examined in relation to the crime charged against him, and that he was not informed that the evidence he might give before the grand jury would be used against him, and that the indictment was found on the evidence thus given by him. Ujider our law but two grounds can be assigned for arrest of judgment : (1) TTo legal authority in the grand jury to inquire into the offense charged, by reason of its not being within the jurisdiction of the court-, (2) that the facts stated do not constitute a crime or misdemeanor. § 6967, Bal. Code. This crime was committed in Pierce county, and was within the jurisdiction of the court. An inspection of the indictment shows that the facts stated constituted the crime of robbery. If the affidavit of the appellant concerning his presence and testimony before the grand jury is true, he should have presented his objections to the indictment at the earliest opportunity, and before the trial. It is too late to raise this question after verdict. Bishop, New Criminal Procedure, § 887. Although such an objection does not fall strictly withm the language of § 6890, Bal. Code, prescribing the grounds of a motion to set aside an
Again, the presumption of law is that the grand jury discharged its duties in a lawful manner, and this presumption should not he overthrown by the unsupported affidavit of the accused. Besides, this affidavit is flatly contradicted by the affidavit of J. L. McMurray, deputy prosecuting attorney. Ho evidence whatever of anything that took place, or any statement of appellant before the grand jury, was introduced at the trial. The motion in arrest of judgment was therefore properly overruled.
The facts as disclosed by the testimony in this case are as follows: Between nine and ten o’clock p. m., or ten and eleven o’clock p. m., the evidence in this respect being indefinite, of July 3, 1899, George Hyde, the prosecuting witness, while traveling on foot between Lake View and Edison, in Pierce county, in this state, on his way to Tacoma, was passed by two men on bicycles. Just as they passed him, they threw their wheels down, came at the prosecuting witness with drawn revolvers, both being armed, and demanded his money. He refused to give up his money and answered he would fight for it. One of the men shot and missed him. One, that he positively identified as Hildebrand, shot, and hit him in the hip, the shot knocking him down. When he was down, Hildebrand’s companion came around and went through the witness’s hind pocket and tools the witness’s money, while Hildebrand held a revolver (called by the witness a “gun”) on his head, threatening to blow the witness’s brains out.
A. Three or'four minutes; probably five.
Q. That would be half past twelve or twelve-thirty-five or forty ?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What did they say to you, Mr. Kelley, did you say ?
A. They told me to throw up my hands.
Q. And you did ?
A. I certainly did.
Q. How many guns did they have ?
A. They had one gun each, that is all I seen.”
Henry McKency, a witness on behalf of the state, testified that on Monday afternoon, the 3d of July, 1899, he loaned the appellant his bicycle; that the appellant said something about going out to American Lake; that he next heard of his wheel at the city hall; and that a brother of the appellant about a week afterwards returned the wheel. This witness further testified that, on the evening of July 3d, between eleven-thirty and twelve o’clock, at the Germania Hall bar room, in Tacoma, he saw the appellant and Hildebrand together; that Hildebrand had on guards that “you put around your legs to keep your pants from catching in the sprocket wheel;” that appellant and Hildebrand left the dance hall together, and remained away some fifteen or twenty minutes, and then came back together. J. E. Sipes, a police ofiicer, testified on behalf of the state that, on the night of the 3d and 4th of July, 1899, in Tacoma, about the hour of three-fifteen and three-thirty a. m., he saw the appellant and Hildebrand together on Thirteenth street, in Tacoma, and that each of them had a bicycle, and he and another officer named Wiley, after questioning them, arrested them on suspicion and searched them, taking from the appellant two guns (revolvers), and that Wiley took from Hildebrand two other guns (revolvers) ; that they were asked before their arrest
The first error complained of is that the court erred in permitting Hildebrand, indicted jointly with the appellant, to be present in the court room during the trial of the
The second error assigned is that the court erred in allowing the evidence of George Hyde, to the effect that Hildebrand was the man who shot him, and refusing to instruct the jury to disregard such testimony. The prosecuting witness, in detailing the circumstances of the robbery, testified that one of the robbers, whom he identified as Hildebrand, in the perpetration of the robbery shot him. The matter was properly before the jury, and the court did not err in refusing to instruct the jury to disregard such testimony. It is true, as shown by the record, that when Hildebrand was brought into court for identification, the prosecuting witness, who was on the stand testifying, voluntarily, and without being asked, said: “There is the man that shot me down. There is the man that held the gun over my face and said he would blow my brains out.” This remark was, on motion of the appellant, stricken out. Subsequently, without objection further than to the presence of Hildebrand in court, the prosecuting witness testified that Hildebrand was the man who shot him. This evidence was a part of the res gestae.
“When a declaration, act or omission forms part of a transaction which is a fact in issue relevant to the issue, such declaration, act or omission is relevant if it tends to
The third assigned error is that the court directed, in the presence of the jury, that Hildebrand he brought back for the purpose of assisting to identify the appellant. We find nothing of the kind in the record, and Hildebrand was not used as a witness for such purpose. It was, as we have said, proper and relevant testimony for the prosecuting witness to identify and point out on the trial Hildebrand as the person who assisted in the robbery; for this was followed up with testimony showing that appellant and Hildebrand were together on the evening of the robbery, in the vicinity of the place where the robbery occurred, armed with revolvers, near the time it occurred, and were seen together in Tacoma from about half past eleven o’clock of that evening till three o’clock the next morning, when they were taken in custody, each armed with revolvers and traveling with bicycles.
The fourth assignment of error, that the court permitted H. M. Germaine, and the fifth assignment, that the court permitted J. H. Kelley, to testify concerning other robberies by appellant and Hildebrand on the same night, we will consider together. It will not he denied that the general rule is that it is not competent to show the commission of another distinct crime by the defendant for the purpose of proving that he is guilty of the crime charged. But there are exceptions to this rule. There is nothing in the testimony of Germaine that shows, or tends to show, that a robbery was attempted on Germaine, or that he was robbed. His testimony was simply to the effect that about nine-twenty o’clock of the evening of July 3, 1899, about a mile from Lake View, he saw appellant and Hildebrand together, and that they had with them two “guns” apiece in their hands; that he (witness) was. riding a bicycle, and
“A cursory examination of this testimony would naturally lead a court to think there was sufficient evidence to be submitted to a jury, and while there may be a failure in some particular, unless the particular instance in which the failure occurs is pointed out, it would probably escape attention.”
In the opinion the court says:
“As this is an appellate tribunal, constituted to revise and correct the errors committed by the trial court, it is only when that court has acted^ and the act is claimed to be error and disclosed by the record, that such error becomes the subject of our power and duties. The motion in this ease [a motion to direct an acquittal] is a general one and only challenges the general sufficiency of the evidence, that is, says, in effect, there is a total failure of evidence. Upon a motion of this kind the only question raised is whether there is any evidence tending to prove the crime charged, not whether the evidence fails in some particular matters. In a motion asking the court to direct an acquittal, where it is claimed that the evidence is insufficient to prove the crime charged, it ought to specify the particulars in which it is claimed the evidence is insufficient unless there is a total failure of proof; otherwise the attention of the trial court will be directed to the evidence as a whole, that is, whether there is anv evidence upon which a verdict may be founded, and wholly omit to consider the particular matter in which the alleged insufficiency consists, and which is relied upon in this court and perhaps subsequent
In Edwards v. Carr, 13 Gray, 238, Shaw, C. J., says:
“ It is very important that no objection to a verdict be brought before this court by an exception which was not in some form taken at the trial, especially in cases where there is ground to believe that if it had been then brought to the attention of the judge and the adverse counsel, it might have been avoided by an amendment, or by a more specific direction by the judge, sustaining or overruling it. The party objecting would have the full benefit of his objection in matter of law, if well founded, either by a ruling in his favor, or by an allowance of the exception, and the rights of both parties be secure.”
Quoting further from the Oregon case, that court says:
“ The law should not permit a party to make a general motion, as in this case, and lie by without making the particular grounds of his motion known to the court, and take the chances of success on the grounds which the judge may think proper to put his ruling, and then if he fails to succeed with either court or jury avail himself of an objection which, if it had been stated, might have been removed. This works no injustice to a party, for if there be merit in his motion or objection he has the full benefit of it, and if there be no merit he certainly ought not to succeed. In the midst of a trial at nisi prius the judge is necessarily compelled to rule upon many questions of law without the opportunity for deliberation the importance of the questions demand, and it is but an act of justice to him that such rulings be not reversed unless his mind was
It is also urged as an error that the jury did not follow the instructions of the trial judge, and our attention is called to instruction Ho. 5 of the trial court. That instruction is as follows:
“Before you can convict the defendant, Edgar Hyde, of the crime charged, the prosecution must show, and you must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant Edgar Hyde, acting in conjunction with John Hildebrand, on the 3d day of July, 1899, in the county of Pierce, Washington, did forcibly, feloniously, and by violence, and by putting the said George Hyde in fear, take from the person and against the will of said George Hyde money of the United States of the value of four dollars and twenty-five cents
Just preceding this instruction, as instruction Ho. 4, the court read to the jury, as a part of his instructions, the statutetdefining robbery (Bal. Code, § 7103), as follows:
“Every person who shall forcibly and feloniously take from the person of another, or from his immediate presence, any article of value, by violence or putting in fear, shall be deemed guilty of robbery.”
The appellant undertook to set up an alibi and offered some testimony tending to show that he was in Tacoma at the time of the robbery. It must be remembered that the robbers were traveling about on bicycles and could move rapidly. The statement fails to disclose the distance between the place where the robbery was committed and Tacoma. It was, however, near Edison. The jury was acquainted with the locality, and had a right” to form an opinion as to the time it would take the robbers to reach Tacoma. There was a conflict of evidence as. to the whereabouts of the appellant at the time of the robbery, and it was for the jury to decide, on all the evidence, where the
The appellant filed a motion for a new trial, assigning-errors of law occurring at the trial and excepted to, and that the verdict was contrary to the evidence. In this opinion we have held that the evidence was sufficient to sustain the verdict, and have passed adversely to appellant on all the assigned errors of law occurring at the trial. The further ground urged in the motion for a new tz-ial was newly discovered evidence that could not he had at the trial, and which was sufficient to establish appellant’s innocence. After the conviction of the appellant on October 4, 1899, Hildebrand, the accomplice, made an affidavit that on the 8d day of October, 1899, he (Hildebrand) pleaded guilty to the charge set out in the indictment; that defendant Hyde was not guilty of the crime charged because he, Hyde, was not present at the commission of said crime; that Hildebrand refused to testify in behalf of said Hyde upon the trial because by so doing, in his judgment, he would prejudice his own interest. Hildebrand also filed with the clerk of the court, on October 4,189'9, a statement, signed by himself, in which he says the defendant Hyde was not implicated in the robbery, and that he (Hildebrand) and another man robbed Hyde. The filed statement was an improper paper to be considered on the motion for a new trial. The affidavit of Hildebrand affirmatively shows that it is not newly discovered evidence. Impliedly it appears that appellant knew that Hildebrand would testify to his innocence, but that Hildebrand refused to do so because he would prejudice his own interest. There is no showing in the affidavit that Hildebrand on a new trial would testify to the matters he states in his affidavit and stateznent. New trials should not be granted on the uncor
Under all tbe circumstances, and in view of the evidence in this case, we think the court properly denied the motion for a new trial.
The judgment of the lower court should he affirmed.
Dunbar, O. J., and Anders, Pullerton and Beavis, JJ., concur.