Beaty v. State

82 Ind. 228
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1882
DocketNo. 10,172
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 82 Ind. 228 (Beaty v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beaty v. State, 82 Ind. 228 (Ind. 1882).

Opinion

Howk, J.

The indictment in this case contained three counts. In the first count, the appellant was charged with stealing “one beast of the mule kind,” of the value of $100, of the personal goods and chattels of Herman H. Lindemann and John E. Lindemann. In the second count, he was charged, as the agent and employee of the said Lindemanns, with the embezzlement of “a certain beast of the mule kind,” of the value of $100, of the personal goods and chattels of the said Lindemanns; and in the third count he was charged, as such agent and employee, with the embezzlement of certain moneys, of the amount and value of $100, the proceeds of the sale of “ a certain beast of the mule kind,” of that value, of the personal goods and chattels of the said Lindemanns.

To this indictment the appellant, on arraignment, pleaded that he was not guilty, as therein charged. The issues joined were tried by a jury, and a verdict was returned, in substance, as follows: “ We, the j ury, find the defendant guilty as charged in the third count of the indictment, and that he be fined in the sum of one dollar, and be imprisoned in the State’s prison for a period of two years.” Over the appellant’s motion for a new trial, and his exception saved, the court rendered judgment on the verdict.

The only error relied upon by the appellant’s counsel for the reversal of the judgment below, is the decision of the circuit court in overruling the motion for a new trial.

Before proceeding to the consideration and decision of any of the questions presented and discussed by the appellant’s counsel, it may be properly noticed that the verdict of the jury is entirely silent as to the issues joined upon the first and second counts of the indictment. It has often been held by this court, that such a verdict is equivalent to an express verdict, that the defendant is not guilty of the felonies charged in those counts of the indictment not mentioned in the verdict. Bittings v. State, 56 Ind. 101; Bonnell v. State, 64 Ind. 498; Lamphier v. State, 70 Ind. 317. In this court, therefore, the [230]*230third count of the indictment may be properly l’egarded as the only indictment against the appellant.

In this third count, it was charged in substance, that the appellant, on the 15th day of June, 1881, at and in the county of Marion, was then and there the agent and employee of Herman H. Lindemann and John F. Lindemann, for the purpose of selling and trading a certain beast of the mule kind, of the value of one hundred dollars, of the personal goods and chattels of the said Lindemanns, and the appellant, as such agent and employee received and took into his possession, as it was his duty so to do, said beast of the mule kind, and, in pursuance of such agency and employment, did sell and trade the said beast of the mule kind, and did receive and take into his possession, as the purchase-money of said beast of the mule kind, divers moneys, bills, notes, legal tender treasury notes, national bank notes, gold and silver coins, copper and nickel coins, amounting in all to one hundred dollars, and of the value of .one hundred dollars, a more particular and accurate description of which said moneys, etc., is to said jurors unknown, and for that reason can not be given, all of which said moneys, etc., wore then and there of the aggregate value of one hundred dollars, and current money of the United States, and of the moneys, personal goods and chattels of the said Lindemanns. And the appellant at and in the county of Marion, and on said 15th day of June, 1881, as such agent, did then and there unlawfully, feloniously, knowingly and fraudulently purloin, secrete, embezzle and appropriate to his own use all of said moneys, etc., current money as aforesaid and of the value aforesaid, so received as aforesaid, as the agent of the said Lindemanns, contrary to the foi'm of the statute, etc.

The first point made by the appellant’s counsel in argument is based upon the refusal of the court below to require the prosecuting attorney to elect on which counts of the indictment the State would proceed and rely; whether the State would rely on the first and second counts or on the first [231]*231and third counts. The record shows that the appellant’s motion for an order requiring such an election was made after the State had introduced its evidence and rested, and before the offer of any evidence by the appellant; that thereupon the prosecuting attorney represented to the court that the different counts in the indictment covered the same facts, and were not distinct crimes, but the same criminal acts charged in different ways as a precaution against variance, and that the court then overruled the appellant’s motion. There was no available error, we think, in this ruling of the court. It is settled by the decisions of this court that the subject of appellant’s- motion is a matter wholly within the discretion of the trial court, and that the decisions of that court on such a motion will not be reviewed by this court. Mershon v. State, 51 Ind. 14; Snyder v. State, 59 Ind. 105; Lamphier v. State, supra.

The appellant’s counsel earnestly insist that the doctrine of the cases cited is not applicable to the case in hand, but we think otherwise. In the early case of McGregg v. State, 4 Blackf. 101, the court said: “ Where there are two or more counts for apparently distinct felonies, as there legally may be in many instances, it can not bo a matter of course, as the plaintiff in error contends it is, for the defendant'to compel the prosecutor to elect on which single count he will go to trial. If that were the case, it would at once render nugatory the established and legal practice of inserting several counts in an indictment for felony. There could be no possible use in inserting several counts, if the defendant could, in effect, have them all but one struck out of the indictment. The truth is, the different counts in an indictment for felony, are usually drawn with a view to one and the same transaction ; and the object of inserting several counts is, that some ■one of them may be found, on the trial, to be in accordance with the evidence. This is a legitimate object, and the court will never, in such a case, interfere with the proceeding.”

In the case at bar, the prosecuting attorney told the court [232]*232in effect, in response to appellant’s motion, that the different counts in the indictment were drawn with a view to one and the same transaction. Upon this representation, we are of the opinion that the court committed no error in overruling the appellant’s motion to require the prosecuting attorney to elect on which counts of the indictment the State would proceed and rely.

The appellant’s counsel next complain of the refusal of the court to give the ninth instruction asked by appellant, in substance, as follows:

“Though the jury may believe that the moneys alleged to have been embezzled did come into the possession of the appellant, as the agent of the Lindemanns, and was by him put to his own use, the same being the Lindemanns’ property; still, if the evidence showed that the appellant, at the time, did not intend to embezzle such moneys, 'but intended to return the same to the owners thereof, then the jury should acquit him on the third count of the indictment.”

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Bluebook (online)
82 Ind. 228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beaty-v-state-ind-1882.