202 Mo. 210 | Mo. | 1907
This prosecution was commenced on the 23rd of February, 1904, by information filed by the prosecuting attorney of Miller county, duly verified, wherein it is charged that the defendant on or about the 14th day of October, 1903, at the county of Miller, knowingly, unlawfully and feloniously had in his custody and possession a certain false, counterfeited and forged instrument of writing purporting to be a deed of conveyance of real estate situated in Miller county, Missouri, and described as the east half of the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter, all in section twelve, township forty-one of range fifteen, from W. F. Brown to W. J. Wait, and purporting to be made by the said W. P. Brown and to be his free act and deed and which said false, counterfeited and forged written instrument, to-wit, a deed from the said W. P. Brown to the said W. J. Wait for the land aforesaid, was in said information fully set forth according to the tenor thereof, and with a certificate of acknowledgment attached thereto, which purported to have been taken before and by one J. N. Craig, a notary public, at his office in Independence, on the 27th day of August, 1903, and was filed for record on the 14th day of September, 1903, in the office of the recorder of deeds of Miller county. The information then proceeded to charge further that “said deed and instrument of writing so purporting to be the act and ' deed of the said W.- F. Brown purported and pretended to convey the land aforesaid to the said W. J. Wait, he the said W. P. Brown being then and there the owner of the land aforesaid, and by which said false and
The defendant was put upon his trial at the September term, 1904, and was convicted, but was granted a new trial. Afterwards at the March term, 1905-, the defendant was again put upon trial and was again convicted and his punishment assessed at two years, in the penitentiary; from that judgment he has prosecuted this appeal.
The testimony tended to prove without any contradiction that the land described in the information was the property of W. F. Brown of Kansas City, and that he had never signed any deed to any person for said property. A short time before the date of the forged deed, the defendant visited L. M. Musser, a lawyer and abstractor at Tuscumbia, and requested Musser to ascertain the name of the last record owner of this real estate. Mr. Musser examined his. abstract books and told the defendant that W. F. Brown was the last owner. The defendant then desired to know where Brown lived. Musser was unable to tell him his residence, but told him he could ascertain by
1. The information in this case is bottomed upon section 2012, Revised Statutes 1899, and is sufficient to constitute a valid charge under that section. [State v. Hathhorn, 166 Mo. 229; State v. Mills, 146 Mo. 195.]
2. It is urged by the learned counsel for the defendant that it is highly improbable and unreasonable to believe that the defendant could have been guilty of the offense charged, for the reason that his evidence tends to show that he was a man fifty years of age, of little or no1 education, and according to his testimony, and that of his family, he could only write his name in his business transactions. This contention ignores the nature of the charge in the information. The defendant was not charged with forging the deed, but with having in his possession the said forged and counterfeit instrument knowing the same to- have been forged, with the intent of injuring or defrauding by uttering and passing the same as true. It is not at all essential to his conviction under this charg*e that he should have actually forged the said -deed or have personally affixed the name of the said Brown thereto. So the proof of his limited education and want of ability to write the instrument falls far short of disproving that he had said forged instrument in his possession knowing the same to have been forged and counterfeited and with intent to- defraud by uttering the same as genuine. [State v. Allen, 116 Mo. l. c. 554, 555; State v. Hathhorn, 166 Mo. 236.] There was ample evidence to justify the jury in finding not only that the deed from Brown to Wait was forged, but that the defendant had knowledge of such forgery and was in the possession of said forged and counterfeit instrument with the intent to utter and pass the same as a genuine deed.
3. The verdict of the jury is challenged as insuf
4. There is no merit in the contention that the venue was not sufficiently established. There was abundant evidence tending to show that the defendant had the forged deed in his possession in Miller county with the intent then and there knowingly to utter the same in said county.
5. The instructions one and two> given on behalf of the State were full and fair and exceedingly liberal towards the defendant. It is unnecessary to burden this opinion with reproducing these instructions.
6. During the trial, the State offered in evidence a note and chattel mortgage executed by the defendant to one Austin, and by Austin endorsed to Graham. This note was offered for the purpose of proving the handwriting of the defendant for the purpose of comparing it with the signatures to the alleged forged deed. This was clearly admissible under section 4679> Revised Statutes. 1899.
7. As to the proposition advanced that the court erred in permitting counsel for the State to cross-examine the defendant on matters concerning which he was not examined in chief, it is sufficient to say that no objection was made to his examination by the attorney for the defendant and no exceptions saved and of course the matter is not before us for review.
8. No error was committed by the court in permitting the witnesses Musser, Howenstein and Harrison to testify as experts on handwriting. They were
9. No error was committed in permitting tbe State to prove that about the time of tbe commission of tbe act charged, the defendant had in his possession another forged deed from Wait to himself, which purported to convey title to the same land. It was entirely competent to prove that the defendant forged the signatures to the 'deed from Brown to Wait and from Wait to defendant. The rule has long been established in this State that upon an indictment for forgery, evidence is admissible to show that defendant has been guilty of other forgeries than the one charged, committed about the same time. The evidence is admitted to establish, the fraudulent intent on the part of the defendant, notwithstanding such' evidence may also tend to prove the defendant guilty of another distinct offense.
10. There are various other objections, among them, the proposition made by the defendant after his conviction, that he was prosecuted by information and not by indictment, but we have carefully considered all these points and in our opinion none of them constitute reversible error. Accordingly, the judgment of the circuit court is'affirmed.