Title: McDonough v. State

State: indiana

Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court

Document:

242 Ind. 376 (1961)
175 N.E.2d 418
McDONOUGH
v.
STATE OF INDIANA.
No. 29,916.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
Filed June 20, 1961.
Rehearing denied January 19, 1962.
*377 Albert W. Ewbank, of Indianapolis, for appellant.
Edwin K. Steers, Attorney General, and Carl M. Franceschini, of counsel, of LaPorte, for appellee.
JACKSON, J.
Appellant was charged by indictment with soliciting and accepting a bribe.
Trial by jury resulted in a verdict of quilty, judgment was entered on the verdict, and appellant was sentenced to the Indiana State Prison for an indeterminate period of not less than two nor more than fourteen years, fined in the sum of $3,600, disfranchised and rendered incapable of holding any office of trust or profit for a period of ten years.
The indictment in pertinent part reads as follows:
Appellant attacked the sufficiency of the indictment by motion to quash, which motion, in pertinent part, reads as follows, to-wit:
*379 Thereafter the court overruled the appellant's motion to quash; the appellant waived arraignment, pleaded not guilty, and proceeded to trial. Appellant assigns as errors the overruling of his motion for a new trial and the overruling of his motion to quash. Appellant first contends that the indictment is uncertain because it charges both the solicitation and the acceptance of a bribe, and that the conviction of one charge is dependent upon the proof of the other. This court has recently held adversely to appellant's contention in the case of Smith v. State (1960), 241 Ind. 1, 168 N.E.2d 199. The court there stated:
Appellant urges that the evidence is not sufficient to sustain the conviction. Admittedly, most of the evidence consists of the testimony of the witness Arthur J. Mogilner. There are numerous exhibits in the record, some being checks and some being carbons of original vouchers and checks. It is true that much of the written evidence, including the exhibits above referred to, would have been meaningless had not Mogilner explained the significance of such exhibits. *380 The principal argument by appellant is that no credence should be given Mogilner's testimony on the theory that the witness was a perjurer, convicted felon and bribe giver. Appellant asks that this court disregard the testimony of the witness Mogilner as it did in the case of Sylvester v. State (1933), 205 Ind. 628, 187 N.E. 669.
However, as we pointed out in Tungate v. State (1958), 238 Ind. 48, 147 N.E.2d 232, and Mattingly v. State (1957), 236 Ind. 632, 142 N.E.2d 607, the only evidence in the Sylvester case, supra, connecting appellant in any manner with the stolen automobile came from the mouth of a single witness who was an "admitted thief, admitted highway robber and admitted deserter from the navy, was, as to each of his material statements concerning appellant's connection with the stolen car, directly contradicted by himself under oath, by disinterested witnesses, by circumstantial evidence, and by physical facts."
These factors are not present in the case at bar, and as indicated in Mattingly v. State, supra, and Tungate v. State, supra, the Sylvester case, supra, is clearly distinguishable on the facts in the record here.
The appellant next urges that the verdict was contrary to law. The appellant presents on that question the same argument as was presented with regard to the sufficiency of the evidence. Appellant alleges that there was no probative evidence on the part of the charge concerning the solicitation. We think, without question, the record shows a solicitation on the part of the appellant, the evidence concerning the solicitation of bribes for the front-end loader is somewhat in doubt on the one point, that is, who solicited who, in other words did Mogilner solicit the appellant or was it the other way around? The question appears *381 to be immaterial in view of this court's holding in the Smith case, supra, as set out on page 204 of 168 N.E.2d on the question of variance raised in that case.
Appellant next argues that the admission of certain vouchers in evidence over appellant's objections constituted reversible error. These exhibits were vouchers and checks of A.J. Mogilner, distributor. Mogilner testified that they were carbons of the original vouchers and checks, the paper being perforated between the check at the bottom and the voucher at the top on the original. These carbon copies contain no perforations. Mogilner testified that he wrote checks and vouchers at the same time, then separated the checks and destroyed the original vouchers. The objections in the record are that the exhibits were self serving, not the original, and are not relevant to the issues.
These records, according to Mogilner, were made by him at the time of issuing the checks, thus to this extent they would come under the shopbook rule. State ex rel. v. Central States Bridges Co. (1912), 49 Ind. App. 544, 97 N.E. 803; Gilmore v. Merritt et al. (1878), 62 Ind. 525; See: 13 I.L.E., Evidence, § 162, pp. 37, 38.
The carbon copy is merely a counterpart of the original and as such it is admissible. Weaver v. Shipley et al. (1891), 127 Ind. 526, 535, 27 N.E. 146.
Since these records are admissible under the shopbook rule it is immaterial whether or not they are self serving. They might affect the credibility of the witness, but not his competency. The vouchers are relevant, for they state for what purpose the payments were made, that being the *382 crux of the whole case. Written instruments which relate to the issues are admissible to corroborate a witness's testimony. 98 C.J.S., Witnesses, § 648, p. 672.
The fact that a conspiracy may be inferred from the evidence does not make that evidence inadmissible to prove relevant parts of a bribery indictment. Higgins v. State (1901), 157 Ind. 57, 60 N.E. 685; Loveless v. State (1960), 240 Ind. 534, 166 N.E.2d 864, 867.
The next contention of appellant concerns the refusal by the trial court to give two tendered instructions. Instruction number two as tendered by the appellant reads as follows:
Instruction number four tendered by the appellant reads as follows:
The court gave instruction number seventeen which reads as follows:
It is urged that this instruction did not sufficiently cover the matter of the credibility of the witnesses, especially such a witness as Mogilner. There may be merit in such contention, but the two instructions offered by appellant in its place or to supplement it were not proper and were correctly refused by the court. Both of these instructions seriously attacked the witness, Mogilner. This court stated in Nordyke v. State (1938), 213 Ind. 243, 256, 11 N.E.2d 165,
The jury in this State is the sole judge of the credibility of a witness, and the court has no right to invade that province. Sparks v. State (1942), 220 Ind. 343, 347, 42 N.E.2d 40; Hammond v. State (1928), 200 Ind. 343, 344, 163 N.E. 262; Culley v. State (1923), 192 Ind. 687, 689, 138 N.E. 260.
Instructions two and four were properly refused because they singled out the witness Mogilner personally.
In this State it is error to single out the testimony of any one specific witness, and instructions on credibilities should be directed to all of the witnesses generally. Swanson v. State (1944), 222 Ind. 217, 219, 52 N.E.2d 616.
Finally, appellant asserts that there is a variance between the evidence and the verdict which is fatal to such verdict and judgment. This variance is purported to be that the checks for the money involved herein were from A.J. Mogilner, distributors, and not from Mogilner personally as charged in the indictment. It was pointed out in Smith v. State, supra, that a variance may cause a reversal when the defendant is misled or when the evidence may not preclude a second jeopardy. The variance here, if any, will not result in either of these situations. In any subsequent trial the same evidence could not be used to convict on the same charge of solicitation or bribery.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Landis, C.J., Achor, Arterburn and Bobbitt, JJ., concur.
NOTE.  Reported in 175 N.E.2d 418.