(Download) "State v. Jerome Ruffin" by Supreme Court of Minnesota # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: State v. Jerome Ruffin
- Author : Supreme Court of Minnesota
- Release Date : January 11, 1968
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 55 KB
Description
This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction. Defendant asks for a reversal or new trial on the grounds that Minn. St.
609.52, subd. 2(4), which proscribes theft by swindling, is unconstitutionally vague and uncertain; that the verdict is not
supported by the evidence; and that the court erred in failing to give adequate instructions to the jury concerning the elements
of the offense charged. The facts out of which the prosecution arose are not in dispute. On the morning of September 23, 1966, Robert Spandel, 17
years of age, left the West Broadway Branch of the First National Bank in Minneapolis, after having deposited $50 to his account.
Upon crossing the street, he was approached by defendant, Jerome Ruffin, who engaged him in conversation. Ruffin, speaking
with a heavy Spanish accent, asked Spandel to help him find his brother who lived somewhere in the city. Spandel took Ruffin
to a nearby drugstore to look through the Minneapolis telephone directory. There Spandel and Ruffin met a third man, an apparent
stranger, who also became involved in helping Ruffin to locate the "brother." When the telephone directory proved a fruitless
source, the third man, later identified as Hubert Wilson, suggested that all three go in his car to a place known to Wilson
where Ruffin might get a room. Wilson parked at an address in south Minneapolis and went into a home, allegedly to inquire
about a room for Ruffin. In the meantime Spandel and Ruffin remained in the automobile and Ruffin directed their conversation
to the subject of the safety of keeping money in banks. After what he reported to be a fruitless visit at the address where
they stopped, Wilson returned to the car and the discussion continued. Banks, suggested Ruffin, were not safe places for money
because, being basically dishonest institutions, they could not be depended upon to return your money once you let them have
it. Spandel disagreed, admonishing Ruffin to deposit in a bank a large amount of cash he was purportedly carrying with him.
Ruffin scoffed at this idea and suggested that he could prove he was correct. He challenged Spandel to withdraw money from
his account at the bank. Spandel accepted the challenge to demonstrate that Ruffin was mistaken in his beliefs. He returned
to the bank and withdrew $132 from his account. With proof of his bank's integrity in his hands, Spandel accompanied Ruffin
and Wilson back to the address where they had stopped, and the three became engaged in a card game called "Chinese black jack
poker." The game took place in Wilson's car and with Ruffin's cards. After a few hands, Ruffin won the $132 from Spandel.
Ruffin quit while he was ahead. He consented, however, to go with Wilson and Spandel to where a "girl" lived. Fearing that
he might lose his winnings at the "girl's" house, and apparently still unconvinced by Spandel's demonstration that banks could
be relied upon, Ruffin appeared to wrap the money in an old newspaper, which he deposited in a garbage can in an alley. All
three then started off to the "girl's" house.