State v. Ferrato

Citations

• 72 Wash. 112
• 129 P. 898
• 1913 Wash. LEXIS 1415

Syllabus

<p>Indictment and Information — Larceny—By Bunco Game — Sufficiency. Under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 2601, subd. 2, providing that every person who with intent to deprive the owner of any property by any trick, device, bunco game or fortune telling . . . steals such property and shall be guilty of larceny, an information is sufficient if, rejecting additional matter as surplusage, enough remains to charge the offense in the language of the statute, in the absence of any motion to strike or make more definite, even though it did not describe any trick, fraud or device.</p> <p>Larceny — -By Trick or “Bunco Game” — Evidence—Sufficiency. A conviction of grand larceny, by means of a trick, device or “bunco game,” under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 2601, subd. 2, is sustained, although the game played was an innocent game of skill, where it appears that the prosecuting witness was induced by three confederates to engage in a game of boccie with a reputed stranger as an adversary, who was skilled in the game, that be was allowed to win a few games, bis measure taken, and then induced to play for $3,000, the confederates pretending to contribute $5,000 towards a pretended $8,000 stake, and that they never intended to allow him a chance to win, but stole and divided up bis $3,000 before the game was over; any game, whether innocent or not, being a “bunco game” if it is the design and conduct of those using it to give it that character.</p>