State v. St. Clair

262 S.W.2d 25 (1953)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Rieken operated a truck garden and sold the produce thereof from a roadside stand in front of his home. On the night of August 19, someone knocked at his rear bedroom door. He did not answer. The door was pushed open, a man entered and stated, 'We want your money.' The man held a pistol in one hand and a flashlight in the other. The flashlight enabled Rieken to see the intruder. Rieken went into another room, took $325 from his overalls and brought it to the intruder, who took it and said to him, 'Now you stay in there. We are going to be around here a while, if you come out we will shoot you.' When the intruder left the house, Rieken looked through a window and saw a truck driven away with men in it. D and Loren Young and Calvin McNeal were arrested at D's home. The police found a stolen automobile, several flashlights, numerous firearms and a large quantity of ammunition. D readily admitted participation in the robbery but claimed that Young and McNeal had forced him to do so. D was about twenty-seven years of age and was dull and unable to remain in school beyond the third grade. He had been committed to the State Hospital in Nevada as an insane person, later released or paroled, again committed and again discharged in about 1944. D suffered from an organic disease of the brain. D would be easily swayed by threats and was possessed of an insane fear of two men and could not be persuaded otherwise. D was not capable of knowing right from wrong insofar as his connection with these men was concerned. Defendant lived with his wife and son and collected and sold used automobile parts. He testified that Young and McNeal came to his home to buy an automobile part and then made frequent visits and soon began to stay there practically all of the time. They slept on his premises in their automobile and had his wife cook for them. Young and McNeal engaged in extensive target practice with firearms. They wouldn't stop. They shot at him and threatened him. D came to fear them greatly and was afraid to report them to the sheriff's office. They threatened they would kill both him and his wife before any police could get them. On the night of the robbery Young and McNeal asked him to drive his truck to Kansas City to 'haul some stuff' for them. D did not want to go, but they threatened to 'punch' him. Eventually, Young told him it was going to be a holdup of old man Rieken. They said that if he didn't do what they said to do, they were going to 'blow my head out.' They said, 'If you get out [of Rieken's house] and run away, we are going back out and shoot your wife and boy.' D was afraid he would be shot if he did not go through with the holdup. McNeal gave him a pistol and McNeal displayed a sawed-off shotgun. McNeal went with D to the door and told D to go in and ask for the money. After the robbery, McNeal took the money and the pistol from him. Young and said, 'You robbed a man with a gun that wasn't even loaded', and showed him that the pistol which he had used in holding up Rieken had no ammunition in it. The judge refused a duress instruction. D was convicted and appealed.