Opinion
March 25, 1931.
1. CONFESSION. A voluntary confession or statement by the accused is admissible against him on the trial.
2. ____: Voluntary. By a voluntary confession is meant a confession not extorted by any threats or violence, or obtained by any direct or implied promises or inducements.
3. ____: ____: Made While Under Arrest: Admissible. Where there is no evidence that defendant's confession was involuntary, or that he was under mental anguish or sweated, and in his confession he admitted stealing the automobile to protect another, the confession was voluntary and was not inadmissible because he was under arrest and in custody at the time he made it, whether the arrest had been made under invalid process or legal right.
4. ____: ____: Answers to Questions Propounded by Police. A free and voluntary confession of guilt is not to be excluded as evidence merely because the answers were elicited by questions put to him by police officers after his arrest — not even where the questions assume the guilt of the accused.
5. ____: ____: Warning of Use Against Accused. If a confession was voluntary, the fact that the officer, to whom it was made after his arrest and in response to questions, did not caution or warn the accused that the confession might be used against him, does not render it inadmissible.
6. ____: Corpus Delicti: Evidence Aliunde: Plea in Abatement. Proof aliunde that the automobile was stolen and defendant's voluntary confession that he stole it, are sufficient to convict him of the larceny of the car, and require the court to sustain the State's demurrer to his plea in abatement.
Appeal from Buchanan Circuit Court. — Hon. J.V. Gaddy, Judge.
AFFIRMED.
S.P. Davisson for appellant.
(1) If the grand jury in doing something in its investigation that is unlawful in finding an indictment against a person accused of a crime, then the action of the prosecuting attorney who commits the same act in his investigation of the evidence against a person who is charged with committing a crime, would also be unlawful. The court erred in not sustaining his plea in abatement. State v. Naughton, 221 Mo. 398; State v. Faulkner, 175 Mo. 611. "It is intolerable that one whose conduct is being investigated for the purpose of fixing on him a criminal charge should, in view of our constitutional mandate, be summoned to testify against himself and furnish evidence upon which he may be indicted. It is a plain violation both of the letter and spirit of our organic law." No other conclusion can be drawn than that the police detectives took the appellant to the police prison for no other purpose than to secure from appellant a confession, or at least investigate the case to find out from the appellant himself whether or not he was guilty of the crime under investigation. During all the time from the date of the filing of the complaint of the prosecuting attorney until the appellant waived preliminary trial, the case was under investigation just as much so as if the grand jury had the same under consideration. The witness is not a willing witness if there is any constraint put upon him by officer or agency of the law. State v. Naughton, 221 Mo. 433. (2) Over his objection the court admitted the evidence of the Chief of Detectives Duncan and his assistants, Farrell and Hill. The record shows that they knew nothing of the facts that would prove the defendant guilty except the evidence they secured from this defendant. This defendant was under constraint when he made the confession. He was under the direct control of the officers of the law who arrested him, and no confession is voluntary when made under constraint.
Stratton Shartel, Attorney-General, and A.B. Lovan, Assistant Attorney-General, for respondent.
(1) The record shows that there were no threats made by the officers against the defendant and that there was no ill treatment whatever. It was proper for the officers to hear the statements of the defendant. It was not error to admit the testimony of the officers as to the statements made by the defendant. The following authorities support this position: State v. Daly, 210 Mo. 676; State v. Prunty, 276 Mo. 376; State v. Turner, 274 S.W. 36. A confession is presumed to be voluntary unless the contrary is shown. State v. Armstrong, 203 Mo. 559. (2) "The independent evidence of the corpus delicti need not of itself be full and conclusive or sufficient beyond a reasonable doubt, as the confession may be considered with the facts and circumstances in evidence in determining whether the corpus delicti is established." 16 C.J. 736; State v. Patterson, 73 Mo. 712; State v. Knowles, 185 Mo. 177; State v. Skibiski, 245 Mo. 463; State v. Bickel, 177 S.W. 313.
In a verified information filed in the Circuit Court of Buchanan County by the prosecuting attorney, the defendant was charged with grand larceny. Tried to a jury, he was found guilty, and his punishment assessed at twelve years in the penitentiary. He appealed.
The facts are simple. They warrant, on the part of the State, the finding that, on February 7, 1930, in the city of St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Dr. Roger Moore, the owner of a Dodge Senior Six sedan automobile, about nine A.M. on said day, parked it on the street in proximity to the Missouri Methodist Hospital, which he then entered to practice his profession. On leaving the hospital around eleven A.M. on said day, he was unable to discover his automobile, as it had been driven away. In a day or two it was discovered parked on another street in St. Joseph. It had not only been driven a number of miles, but it had been stripped of spare wheels, tires and tire covers. These accessories and parts were found later on a lot on Third Street in the city of St. Joseph.
Defendant contends that his confession was the only evidence adduced tending to connect him with the larceny of Dr. Moore's automobile. While the exactness of this contention is doubtful, we will so treat it.
The evidence tends to show that defendant was arrested, relative to the theft of said automobile, by officers Hill and Farrell on February 15, 1930, and taken to the police station. He was then conducted to the office of the chief of detectives, where, upon interrogation by the police officers, he stated that he and one Stufflebean took an automobile belonging to Dr. Moore, parked near the Missouri Methodist Hospital, drove it away and stripped it of two wheels, including tires and tire covers, which they threw over a stone wall. Later they recovered the accessories and tried to sell them, but, becoming apprehensive, they threw and abandoned them on a lot on South Third Street. It seems that a man by the name of Farris was also implicated. At first defendant denied any connection with the theft, but thinking the other two had given information implicating him, he then admitted his connection therewith. On cross-examination and inquiry a State's witness, a police officer, said that defendant also admitted that he and Stufflebean had stolen a Ford car, stripped it and sold the parts, some of which were recovered on information furnished by defendant. The next day defendant was again interviewed by the police officers and the prosecuting attorney, and he related the same story. The automobile, wheels and tires were recovered by the police on information given by defendant. The automobile was valued at $1800, and the wheels, tires and tire casings complete at $50 each. They found the keys to Dr. Moore's automobile in defendant's room, and defendant identified them. The keys unlocked the ignition and tire locks.
Defendant testified in his own behalf and admitted that he was sentenced to the Reform School in Kansas for burglary for ten years, but that he was paroled to his mother after a confinement of eighteen months. Defendant admitted that he told the police officers that he had stolen four cars, among them Dr. Moore's car, but he stated that his statement was false and that he did not steal the cars. The officers did not advise him of his rights under the law. Defendant said he was protecting Farris when he told the officers that he was the one that had stolen the cars.
The record shows that defendant filed a plea in abatement to the information filed against him on May 1, 1930, which plea averred, in substance, that the interrogation of defendant by the police officers and prosecuting attorney, after his arrest and while in custody, violated his constitutional rights, and that the admission in evidence of his confession, which alone tended to connect him with the theft of Dr. Moore's automobile, was unwarranted and illegal and deprived him of his constitutional rights. A demurrer was filed to this plea in abatement by the State and sustained. At the close of all the evidence, defendant was permitted to again renew his plea in abatement, praying for his discharge, which was overruled.
The record further shows that a felony complaint, charging defendant with the larceny, on February 7, 1930, of Dr. Moore's automobile, was filed before a justice of the peace in Buchanan County on February 13, 1930.
While defendant assigns six separate errors in his motion for a new trial, he seems to think it evident, as do we, that four of the assignments cannot be sustained because they lack merit. However, he presents and briefs two assignments of error: that the court erred, first, in refusing to sustain his plea in abatement; second, in permitting the chief of detectives and the two police officers to relate the statement or confession of defendant, the confession was illegally obtained, because his connection with the theft was shown only by the confession, and the confession was obtained while defendant was in custody of the officers and under arrest. That it follows that a confession made while under restraint is involuntary. These two assignments are correlated, and culminate in a third, that, with the deletion of the confession from consideration, the evidence was insufficient to sustain the verdict.
I. The great weight of authority throughout the land adheres to the rule that a voluntary confession or statement by the accused is admissible in evidence against him on the trial. By a voluntary confession is meant a confession not Confession. extorted by any threats or violence, or obtained by any direct or implied promises or inducements. In 16 Corpus Juris, page 717, paragraph 1468, it is said: "A confession of guilt is admissible against him when, and only when, it was freely and voluntarily made without having been induced by the expectation of any promised benefit nor by the fear of any threatened injury. This is the rule of the common law, affirmed by code or statute in some jurisdictions." [State v. Wilson, 223 Mo. 173, 122 S.W. 671.]
The evidence in the record does not contain even a conjecture or scintilla of evidence that defendant's confession was involuntary. It fails to show that defendant was under mental anguish of any kind or that he was "sweated." His testimony was that he admitted stealing the car to protect Farris. As the confession was voluntary, it was not inadmissible because accused was in custody or under arrest at the time (State v. Brooks, 220 Mo. 74, 119 S.W. 353), even though the arrest may have been under invalid process, or without any process or legal right. [State v. Raftery, 252 Mo. 72, 158 S.W. 585.] Nor is a free and voluntary confession of guilt to be excluded merely because the answers were elicited by questions put to defendant by police officers or others, even though the questions assumed the guilt of accused. [State v. Thomas, 250 Mo. 189, l.c. 211, 157 S.W. 330.] If the confession was voluntary, the fact that the officer did not caution or warn the accused that it might be used against him does not render the confession inadmissible. [State v. Barrington, 198 Mo. 23, l.c. 109, 95 S.W. 235.]
Defendant has cited for our consideration and relies upon State v. Naughton, 221 Mo. 398, 120 S.W. 53, and State v. Faulkner, 175 Mo. 546, 75 S.W. 116, to support his contentions. We need not analyze the cases further than to say that the facts involved the appearance of defendants therein before a grand jury pursuant to a subpoena. The distinction obtaining is that of voluntary and involuntary statements. In the case at bar, defendant freely and voluntarily made statements. In State v. Naughton and State v. Faulkner, supra, the defendants' statements were forced and involuntary, in that they were required upon oath to relate before a grand jury facts which were used against them later.
II. It is intimated that the record fails to develop proof of the corpus delicti. The corpus delicti or body of the crime in this case was the larceny or taking of Dr. Moore's car without or against his consent. That was amply shown. Upon the record Corpus showing proof of the corpus delicti by evidence aliunde Delicti. the confession, a defendant may be convicted upon his confession. [State v. Morro, 313 Mo. 98, 281 S.W. 720.]
III. We conclude that the trial court properly sustained the State's demurrer to the plea in abatement and properly admitted in evidence the testimony of the police officers as to the statements of guilt defendant made to them while in their custody. It follows from our conclusions that the State made a submissible case, thus rendering defendant's guilt a jury question.
The judgment is affirmed. Cooley and Westhues, CC., concur.
The foregoing opinion by DAVIS, C., is adopted as the opinion of the court. All of the judges concur.