Opinion ID: 2459325
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Prosecutor's Opening Statement and Final Argument

Text: In detailing the testimony he intended to introduce the prosecuting attorney told the jury that the owner of the property, Marvin Jones, would testify that he closed and locked his place of business, with the radiators in the securely fastened buildings inside a fence, and that he owned a dump truck which he left on the lot there inside the fence. The keys to this dump truck were left in the office, which was also locked and secured; that the next morning Mr. Jones found the office window broken out, the keys to the dump truck gone, the dump truck itself gone, the radiators gone, and the lock securing the gate to the fence surrounding the place of business off. No objection was made to the reference to the dump truck until the conclusion of the prosecutor's opening statement (six pages later in the transcript). Then, tardily, an objection was made that there was nothing in the information charging the theft of a dump truck. On this appeal appellant makes the point that it was error for the state to refer to the commission of an independent crime. Objections must be timely made, and this objection came too late to preserve the point, and there was no motion to strike the statement. Furthermore, the disappearance of the truck and the disappearance of the large number of radiators (the conveyance of which obviously required some kind of vehicle) occurred in the course of the same transaction, and forms a part of the res gestae of the crimes charged. When a defendant in the course of the perpetration of one crime commits another, the state is not required to nicely sift and separate the evidence and exclude the testimony, tending to prove the crime for which he is not on trial, when it forms a part of the res gestae of the crime charged. State v. Sinovich, 329 Mo. 909, 46 S.W.2d 877 [10, 11]. In his final argument to the jury the prosecuting attorney analyzed the evidence on various phases of the case, and on five occasions stated that the state's evidence to which he made reference was uncontradicted. This is objected to as constituting a comment on the failure of the defendant to take the witness stand, in violation of Article I, Section 19, Constitution of Missouri, 1945, V.A.M.S. and § 546.270, RSMo 1959. The prosecuting attorney did not state that the defendant failed to take the stand, or failed to testify, or that the defendant failed to contradict the state's testimony in any respect. The prosecuting attorney was merely telling the jury, in effect, that the evidence, all of which came from the state, stands without contradiction or dispute from the defense. This is permissible. State v. Baker, Mo.Sup., 439 S.W.2d 515 (decided March 10, 1969); State v. Dunlap, Mo.Sup., 408 S.W.2d 4, 7; State v. Craig, Mo.Sup., 406 S.W.2d 618; State v. McDaniel, Mo.Sup., 392 S.W.2d 310; State v. Tallie, Mo.Sup., 380 S.W.2d 425; State v. Hardy, 365 Mo. 107, 276 S. W.2d 90, 95 [8, 9]; State v. Steele, 280 Mo. 63, 217 S.W. 80. The judgment is affirmed. WELBORN and HIGGINS, CC., concur.