State v. Moses
Arizona Court of Appeals, Div. 1, Dep’t B
599 P.2d 252 (1979)
Willie Joe Moses (defendant) and an accomplice ran a "Jamaican Switch" con, convincing a victim to place his own cash alongside Moses's in a handkerchief as a show of trust, then secretly swapping it for a handkerchief filled with paper before absconding with the money. Moses was charged under Arizona statutes criminalizing obtaining money by a confidence game and by a scheme to defraud, convicted, and sentenced to 5-10 years. He appealed, arguing that the false-pretenses statute, properly read as a codification of the common-law crime, required proof of an intent to transfer title or ownership — an element the statute's text didn't actually include.
Whether a defendant may be found guilty of false pretenses under a state statute that does not include all of the common-law elements of the crime of false pretenses.