Lancaster v. State
Lancaster v. State
Opinion of the Court
The appellant was indicted, tried, and convicted on an indictment which charges that, on a certain day mentioned, he “ did unlawfully and fraudulently take, steal, and carry away, from and out of the possession of William Hunter, without his consent, one hundred and forty-two dollars, current money of the United States, each dollar of said money being of the value of one dollar; which money the grand jurors cannot more fully describe.”
The testimony adduced on the part of the State, and admitted apparently without objection on the part of the defendant, may be summarized as follows: The defendant, about October 13, 1877, came to the witness Hunter and
The theory of the defence in the court below seems to have been that the proof on the part of the State of the defendant’s obtaining the bank checks mentioned by the State’s witness, obtained in the manner and under the circumstances, would not support the allegation in the indictment of theft of money, described in the indictment as current money of the United States, and that the variance between the allegations and the proof was fatal to the prosecution. That the descriptive averments in an indictment must be proved as laid, in order to warrant a conviction, is now too well settled to admit of controversy; and this is so, notwithstanding the pleader has been unnecessarily particular.
Charges were asked by the defendant’s counsel presenting his view of the effect of the testimony, but the court refused to give them to the jury, stating in effect that the substance of the special instructions was embraced in the main charge. It is true that the court charged the jury on the subject of property acquired from the owner by his consent, the taker intending at the time to appropriate it; but we fail to find that the general charge presented to the jury the view of the case embraced in the refused instructions. We are of opinion that an appropriate' charge on that view of the case was a necessary part of the law of the case, and that in refusing to give some appropriate charge the court erred to the prejudice of the defendant. We are of opinion that proof of having obtained checks or orders on a bank for money will not support an allegation charging theft of lawful monejs of the United States. There was proof of the receipt of $3 in money, it is true, but this proof alone would not.support a conviction for felony.
For error in the charge, the judgment will be reversed.and the cause remanded.
Reversed and remanded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.