Opinion ID: 2445571
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Second Amended Information

Text: on or about the 6th day of August, 1965, at the City of St. Louis, Missouri, defendant and one James A. Bell, Attorney at law, did enter into an agreement, the gist of which agreement was that Mr. Bell would represent defendant in a criminal charge, and that, in lieu of paying Mr. Bell a fee, defendant would repair the 1963 Oldsmobile 98 two door automobile mentioned in evidence and would return said automobile to James A. Bell on or before the 10th day of August, 1965, and that although demand was made by said James A. Bell for the return of said automobile on numerous occasions since the 10th day of August, 1965, defendant failed, neglected and refused, and continues to fail, neglect and refuse, to return said automobile to James A. Bell, and in so doing, defendant did conceal and retain possession of said automobile by exercising domain over the automobile in a manner inconsistent with the rights of James A. Bell, the owner thereof, with the felonious intent thus and thereby to steal and permanently deprive the owner of the use of said automobile by means of deceit;   . The primary contention by defendant on appeal is that the trial court erred in permitting the State, at the conclusion of all the testimony, to file its second amended information because the second amended information set forth a new and different offense from that charged in the amended information upon which the case was tried and substantial rights of defendant were thereby prejudiced in violation of Rule 24.02. [1] Accordingly, we first must determine whether a different offense was charged in the second amended information. In 1955 the legislature repealed 59 sections of the statutes which dealt with offenses against property and enacted new sections which consolidated larceny, embezzlement, obtaining money or property by false pretenses, and other similar offenses into one crime, denominated `stealing.' State v. Zammar, Mo., 305 S.W.2d 441, 443. Sections 560.156 and 560.161 are the sections relating to this new single offense. This court observed that this and similar statutes in other states had been adopted to simplify prosecutions of persons for wrongful and criminal acquisition of property of others. As noted in the Zammar case, a single offense of stealing is created by the statute. It can be committed in various ways, but there is only a single offense. It covers stealing whether by taking property without one's consent or by means of deceit. It includes, by definition in the statute, to appropriate by exercising dominion over property in a manner inconsistent with the rights of the owner, either by taking, obtaining, using, transferring, concealing or retaining possession of his property. § 560.156, subsec. 1 (2). Both informations charged the same offense of stealing Bell's automobile by deceit. The second amended information merely recited more details of the conduct involved in the deceit concerning pretended repairs to Bell's automobile. It did not charge a different offense. Defendant cites and relies on State v. Kesterson, Mo., 403 S.W.2d 606, as authority for his contention that a different offense was charged in the second amended information. The Kesterson case holds that the language of the stealing statute alone in an information is insufficient and that the information must include enough in the way of additional allegations to notify defendant as to the charge against which he must defend himself and likewise be sufficient to bar further prosecution for the same offense. State v. Kesterson, supra, 1.c. 611. It is not authority for the proposition that if the court permits amendment of the allegations of the details of how the particular stealing was accomplished, it states a different offense. We hold that the second amended information did not state a new or different offense and rule that contention against defendant. This leaves the question of whether, under Supreme Court Rule 24.02, substantial rights of the defendant were prejudiced by the amendment. Defendant asserts prejudice on the basis that under the first amended information he could not have been convicted unless the State proved that his representations that he would repair the car were completely false at the time he made them, whereas, under the second amended information, it was necessary only for the State to prove that defendant failed to perform his agreement to repair and return the car, and instead concealed the car and kept possession with intent to steal it. We do not so narrowly construe the language of the first amended information. It does not allege only that the defendant represented or pretended that he intended to make repairs, which pretenses were false when made. Instead, it alleges that defendant stole the automobile by pretending to make automobile repairs, and that James Bell relied on and was deceived by said false statements, pretenses and deceit. Those allegations, in our opinion, are broad enough to permit the proof which the State in fact offered and on which defendant was convicted. We also observe that defendant made no objection to any of the State's evidence that it was not relevant to the offense charged, or that it went beyond the recitals of the information. There is nothing to indicate defendant was misled by the first amended information. It is true that the first amended information did not allege as much detail as the second amended information. The latter gives information which the State might have given if a motion for a bill of particulars had been filed and the trial court had sustained the motion, but we do not agree that the State, under the first amended information, had to stand or fall on proof that the defendant had no intention of making the repairs at the moment he obtained possession of the automobile. Both the first amended and second amended informations charged the defendant with stealing a particular 1963 Oldsmobile sedan from James A. Bell by deceit by pretending to make repairs thereon, with the intent to steal and permanently deprive Bell of the ownership of said automobile. Proof or demands for return of the car without success and of false representations by defendant as to repairs to the car and with reference to its whereabouts was proper under either information. When the State sought to file the second amended information, the defendant did not claim surprise and did not ask for time or for a continuance. Rather, his objection was on the basis that this constituted a different charge, that it changed the proof which the State was required to make to establish the charge, and that it deprived the defendant of an opportunity to offer a converse instruction which told the jury that if they found that the defendant intended in good faith to make repairs or cause repairs to be made at the time the car was delivered, they should find him not guilty. Those were the only objections to the amendment. In the case of State v. Tunnell, Mo., 296 S.W. 423, the defendant was prosecuted for shooting into the dwelling house of another. During the trial of the case, the court permitted the State to amend the information to substitute the words revolver or pistol for the word rifle. The defendant claimed that this amendment prejudiced his substantial rights. In overruling that contention, the court said, 1.c. 425: The statute in no wise limits the shooting into the dwelling house to a particular kind of firearm, but interdicts the shooting by means of any weapon or instrument that projects a missile capable of injury or damage. The act prohibited by the statute is the shooting into the dwelling house by means of a missile projected from some kind of weapon, not the shooting from a particular kind of weapon. It was then immaterial whether the dwelling house was shot into from a pistol or revolver, or from a rifle, so long as the shots came from one or the other. We rule that the substitution of the words was a matter of form and variance without prejudice to the substantial rights of defendant on the merits, and was amendable under section 3853, Revised Statutes 1919, on the trial at the discretion of the trial court. The record fails to show that defendant sought any delay, or offered or filed an affidavit for that purpose as the statute of jeofails requires. There is no showing that the amendments allowed constituted error. State v. Walton, 255 Mo. 232, 164 S.W. 211. That language and reasoning is appropriate here. We hold that substantial rights of the defendant were not prejudiced by the amendment of the information. Defendant next contends that the trial court erred in overruling the defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal. We hold that the evidence was entirely sufficient to make a submissible case for the jury and to sustain a verdict of guilty. Taking the State's evidence as true, it is clear that the defendant received the car on the basis of representations that he would repair the automobile and return it by August 10. The car was not returned then and, although Bell repeatedly contacted the defendant thereafter in an effort to get his car returned, and the defendant made numerous representations that the car was in various places and was being or had been repaired and would be returned, the car in fact never was returned to Bell and he never saw it after it was turned over to the defendant on August 6. Defendant took the license plate off of Bell's car and put it on his own. The representation by defendant that the car had been repaired by Jerry Ruffin and was being held by him at Red Bud, Missouri, pending payment for the repairs, was false. Contrary to defendant's testimony, the work order and statement for the work allegedly done on the car, presented by defendant to Bell, were not made out by either Jerry Ruffin or Bob Ruffin. The evidence was sufficient to sustain the verdict of stealing by deceit and the court did not err in failing to sustain defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal. Defendant complains of the giving of Instruction No. 1, the State's verdict-directing instruction, and of the failure of the court to give his converse Instruction No. A. In both instances, however, the complaint is on the basis of alleged error in permitting the filing of the second amended information. For example, defendant's brief asserts that The trial court erred in giving to the jury Instruction No. 1, because it hypothesized facts necessary to establish the offense charged in the second amended information, which was improperly filed and did not require a finding of facts required to bring in a verdict of guilty under the amended information. We have already disposed of the complaint regarding the filing of the second amended information and hence there is no merit to defendant's complaint about the instructions. Furthermore, Instruction No. 1 fairly submitted to the jury the issue of defendant's guilt of stealing Bell's automobile by deceit. Instruction No. A would have told the jury that it must acquit defendant if they found that he intended in good faith to make or cause the repairs to be made at the time the Oldsmobile was delivered to him by Bell. Defendant was not entitled to that instruction and its refusal was not error. Finally, defendant complains that the sentence of eight years' imprisonment is excessive and extreme and amounts to the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of § 21 of Article I of the Constitution of Missouri, 1945. The maximum penalty under § 560.161 for stealing is ten years. Defendant argues that since defendant in the case of State v. Williams, Mo., 343 S.W.2d 58, received only a sentence of five years for stealing when convicted under the Habitual Criminal Act, any sentence of more than five years is excessive and violative of the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. This assignment is overruled. The establishment of limits of punishment is a legislative function. State v. Edmonson, Mo., 309 S.W.2d 616 [11]. The sentence was within limits which may be imposed, even on a first offender. § 560.161. Defendant was found to have three prior felony convictions and was sentenced pursuant to the Habitual Criminal Act. § 556.280. The trial court could have imposed a maximum of ten years' imprisonment. The sentence was not excessive. State v. Brewer, Mo., 338 S.W.2d 863 [12]; State v. Stumph, Mo., 349 S.W.2d 954 [4]. The fact that the trial court in State v. Williams, under the facts in that case, decided to impose a sentence of five years' imprisonment does not mean that all other trial judges in stealing cases, when imposing sentence under the Habitual Criminal Act, are limited to that length of sentence. An examination of the record as required by S.Ct. Rule 28.02, V.A.M.R., discloses no error. The judgment is affirmed. All of the Judges concur.