State Missouri v. Lettie B. Tharp

Defendant was charged by information under § 557.290, RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S., 1 with conveying to the place of confinement of one Leonard Lee Crego, in Jasper County, tools useful in facilitating ""his attempted escape."" There was in fact no attempted escape for the simple reason that the offending instruments, eight hacksaw blades, were found on Crego almost immediately. A jury found defendant guilty and imposed a term of two years' confinement. Motion for new trial was overruled and this appeal followed. Since the sufficiency of the evidence is questioned, we digest it in some detail. Actually, there is little controversy on the facts. Crego was in jail on a felony charge; defendant, a woman 23 years of age and living in Kansas City, had known him for a year or less, and had had ""dates"" with him. On April 9, 1962, Crego was brought from the Jasper County jail at Carthage to the courthouse in Joplin for arraignment, arriving about 8:30 a.m.; he was placed in the holdover, a large cell adjoining the sheriff's office. The door of that cell consisted of steel bars and also a mesh screen. Defendant had arrived at the sheriff's office with her small son about 7:30 a.m. After Crego arrived she asked and was given permission to talk with him through the cell door and did so talk. The general purport of the evidence was that Crego did most of the talking and seemed to be angry, that there was some argument, and that he swore; also, that at one point the defendant was crying. After this conversation defendant went away, but she came back shortly and talked with Crego further at the same place. At approximately 9:00 o'clock Crego, and possibly other prisoners, were taken into the Division One courtroom for arraignment. He sat on the first row inside the railing and perhaps two or three feet to the left (west) of the gate leading inside the rail. Deputy Sheriff Webber sat next to the aisle on the first row outside the rail, almost behind Crego, and another deputy sat on the right of the gate, just inside the rail. Defendant, who had first been seated two or three rows back in the courtroom, came up and sat immediately behind Crego and to the left of Webber. She testified that Crego motioned or called for her to move up, and the court bailiff partially corroborated that fact. Defendant and Crego carried on some conversation in the courtroom. Defendant had a ""purse"" or ""pocketbook,"" obviously a woman's handbag, which she placed on the seat just to her right. Crego reached back over the railing, took this handbag, placed it on the seat to his right, and opened it; he took out a brown paper sack and put it in his inside coat pocket; he also took out some pictures and looked at them. When he took the handbag, defendant made some remark to him about some pictures being in it. Both deputies saw him put the brown sack in his pocket, but did nothing at the time. There was no evidence that defendant handed the handbag to Crego or that she did anything more than place it on the bench; however, she made no protest and made no move to retain it. She testified that Crego took it as she was lifting her child up to the bench. The court officials were in their regular places and, as defendant's counsel brought out, presumably could have seen these events had they been looking. The bailiff did see some of the events and so testified. When the proceedings were terminated, and as Crego left with the deputy or deputies, he handed the bag back to defendant. He had been searched before he was taken to the courtroom and some letters and pictures taken from him. When he was returned to ""the lock-up"" he was searched again and the sack with eight hacksaw blades was found and taken from him; a washcloth and the pictures were also found. It is not shown more specifically just where this search was made. After leaving the cell initially, Crego had been in the continuous view of one or more deputies.