Heller v. People

2 Colo. App. 459
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 15, 1892
StatusPublished

This text of 2 Colo. App. 459 (Heller v. People) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Heller v. People, 2 Colo. App. 459 (Colo. Ct. App. 1892).

Opinion

Richmond, P. J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

Plaintiff in error, David Heller, was at the January term, 1890, of the district court for Arapahoe county, indicted by the grand jury. The indictment presented contained four counts. The first count charged him with embezzlement, as the agent of Caroline Spindler, of a promissory note of the value of $1,200, the property of said Caroline Spindler. The second count charged him with embezzlement as bailee of the same note. The third count charged him with obtaining the possession by false pretenses of the same note, of the value of $1,200. The fourth count charged him with the larceny of $1,200, the property of Caroline Spindler, received by him as bailee of said Caroline Spindler.

A nolle prosequi was entered as to the third count.

At the April term, A. D. 1890, of said district court, plaintiff was formally arraigned and pleaded not guilty. Final trial was had at the January term, 1891, and resulted in a general verdict of guilty.

The value of the property was found to be $1,000.

Exceptions to the verdict were entered and motion for a new trial made.

February, 1891, motion for the discharge of the defendant was interposed on the ground that the cause had been continued for a period of two terms at the instance of the people, and that by virtue of the provisions of section 1616 of the General Statutes of this state, defendant was entitled to his liberty. This motion was overruled as well as the motion for a new trial.

The motion for a new trial was based upon the alleged errors of the court in the admission and rejection of testi[461]*461mony, misconduct of the jury, and new evidence, alleged to have been discovered since the trial. Motion for a new trial was denied and judgment rendered. Motion interposed in arrest of judgment, overruled.

Thereupon the court entered judgment upon the verdict, on the first count of the indictment, sentencing the defendant to one year in the penitentiary. To reverse this judgment defendant prosecutes this writ of error, and in support thereof assigns seventy alleged errors. These can properly be aggregated under five heads:

1. Misjoinder of counts in the indictment.

2. Error in the form of the verdict in this, that the verdict was general on three counts in the indictment, and should have been special, and designated the count upon which the verdict was based.

3. The constitutionality of the statute defining the crime enumerated in the first count of the indictment.

4. Errors occurring at the trial, to wit, errors of the court in the admission of testimony over the objection of the defendant, in the rejection of testimony and in the instructions to the jury.

5. Error of the court in overruling motion for a new trial.

It is insisted that the indictment is defective in this, that it contained counts charging offenses against the law wherein the character of the punishment attached to the offense was different, that is, that for the offense charged in the first, second and fourth counts, the punishment was confinement in the penitentiary for not less then one nor more than ten years, while the punishment for the offense charged in the third count is a fine not exceeding $1,000 and imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding one year and a return of the property fraudulently obtained.

It is admitted by counsel for defendant that different counts for similar offenses may properly appear in the same indictment, and the test by which to determine whether they can be united is the character of the punishment attached to each offense charged. It is also admitted that the punish[462]*462ment for the offenses charged in the first, second and fourth count is the same. This admission, coupled with the fact that the prosecution entered a nolle prosequi as to the third count in the indictment at a former term of the court, and that no testimony was offered under said count, nor was it referred to, either by the court or counsel, during the progress of the last trial now under consideration, disposes of this contention.

True, the court in its instructions did not call the attention of the jury to the fact that the third count had been nollied and judgment rendered thereon for defendant; still a careful reading of the instructions will disclose the fact to be that they were addressed particularly to the first count in the indictment, and the counsel admit this in their brief in the following language: “ As the coxirt in its instructions directs the attention of the jury more particularly to the offense charged in the first count of the indictment and the sentence and judgment of the court is upon that count.” Being no part of the indictment at the trial now under review, we are .unable to conceive how it could have been considered by the jury.

The next point to which our attention is called is the fact that the indictment is drawn under an act of the legislature entitled An Act to amend chapter 24 of the General Laws of Colorado, entitled “ Criminal Code.”

It is insisted that at the time this statute was enacted there was no act of the legislatui'e entitled “ Criminal Code,” that the only general act known to our statute was an act relating to criminal offenses entitled An Act concerning “ Criminal Jurisprudence,” and that the title of an act is by the constitution made an indispensable part of every enactment by the legislature. And that the compiler of laws cannot be delegated with authority to change the title of a statute. The act referred to — page 69, Session Laws of 1881 — is entitled An Act to amend chapter 24 of the General Laws of the State of Colorado, entitled “ Criminal Code.” The second section of the act reads as follows:

[463]*463“If any clerk, apprentice or servant, whether bound or hired, or any agent, clerk, or employee, to whom any money, bank bill, note, goods or chattels, shall be intrusted or delivered by any other person for the benefit or use of his or her master or mistress, principal or employer, or come into the hands of such clerk, apprentice, servant, agent or employee, by virtue of his or her employment or confidential relation to his or her master, mistress, principal or employer, shall withdraw himself or herself from his or her master, mistress, principal or employer, of go away with the said money, bank bill, note, goods or chattels, or any part thereof, with the intent to steal the same, or defraud his or her master, mistress, principal or employer thereof, contrary to the trust and confidence in him or her reposed by his or her said master, mistress, principal or employer, shall embezzle the said money, bank bill, note, goods or chattels, or any part thereof, or otherwise convert the same to his or her own use with .like purpose to steal the same; every such person so offending shall be deemed guilty of larceny and be punished accordingly.”

The laws of 1877 were compiled by the secretary of state under authority conferred upon him by the legislative assembly of this state, in which it was provided that the secretary of state should prepare or cause to be prepared and printed all the general laws passed by the general assembly now in force and not repealed by this general assembly, and to arrange the same in a concise and compact form so as to have all law upon each subject arranged together under the same title as far as

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

People v. Johnson
12 P. 261 (California Supreme Court, 1886)
Clare v. People
9 Colo. 122 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1886)
Dallas v. Redman
10 Colo. 297 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1887)
Edwards v. Denver & R. G. R.
13 Colo. 59 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1889)
People ex rel. Drake v. Mahaney
13 Mich. 481 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1865)
Underwood v. McDuffee
15 Mich. 361 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1867)
People ex rel. Harrington v. Wands
23 Mich. 385 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1871)
State v. Henry
24 Kan. 457 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1880)
State v. McAnulty
26 Kan. 533 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1881)
State v. Combs
47 Kan. 136 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1891)
Ripley v. Evans
49 N.W. 504 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1891)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2 Colo. App. 459, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heller-v-people-coloctapp-1892.