Turner v. State
Turner v. State
Opinion of the Court
With regard to the substitution of the indictment in this case, it is evident from the proceedings that an effort was made by the county attorney to comply with the statute providing for such substitution. Pasc. Dig., art. 2873. The record contains the following entry, after giving the style and number of the case: “Now, on this tenth day of April, a. d. 1877, comes the county attorney, and suggests the loss of the indictment in this cause, whereupon leave is given by the court to supply the same.” Then follows a copy of the proposed substituted indictment, with this accompanying statement, after again giving style and number : “ Conies the county attorney of Burnet County, in the above styled and numbered cause, and says that the above and foregoing substituted indictment is substantially the same as the original indictment in this cause, which has been mislaid.”
If it be admitted, in view of the previous decisions of our courts, that the foregoing is in substantial compliance with the practice in such cases (see The State v. Adams, 17 Texas, 232; Graham v. The State, 43 Texas, 550; and Clampitt v. The State, 3 Texas Ct. App. 638), so far as the suggestion of loss and leave to substitute is concerned, the further question suggests itself upon the record, has the indictment been in fact substituted?
In order to complete the act of substitution, the court should have gone further, and made the record speak the fact affirmatively that the substitution as proposed was made. We are left to indulge the presumption that such
The indictment in this case has not been substituted, because there is no order of record showing that fact; and we might content ourselves with reversing the case simply upon that ground (Beardall v. The State, 4 Texas Ct. App. 631), but, inasmuch as the record maybe amended nune pro tune (Rhodes v. The State, 29 Texas, 188), we will notice, with a view to another trial, some of the many errors complained of in the assignment of errors, and argued at length in the brief of counsel for appellant, premising that such as are not specially noticed are considered by us as^untenable.
Perhaps it may be well enough to remark, in passing, that the evidence establishes on the part of Fowler the actual care, management, and control, with authority to dispose of and sell the cattle, and shows such possession and ownership as would sustain the allegation that the property was his ; and we consider the fact of the existence or nonexistence of the power of attorney, and its introduction as proof of authority, wholly immaterial in view of the other facts proven.
The court erred in refusing to admit the testimony of Isham Good as to what transpired at the time of the sale of the cattle by defendant to Ballard. The bill of sale which defendant executed 'to Ballard shows that defendant
The court also erred in refusing to charge the jury, as requested by defendant, upon the law of driving live-stock from its accustomed range under circumstances not constituting theft. The indictment in the case and the facts
The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded for a new trial.
Reversed and remanded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.