Patty v. State

556 S.W.2d 776, 1977 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 296
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJuly 14, 1977
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 556 S.W.2d 776 (Patty v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Patty v. State, 556 S.W.2d 776, 1977 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 296 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

OPINION

BYERS, Judge.

The Appellant was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to serve ten (10) years and he was convicted, also, of bank robbery and sentenced to serve twenty (20) years and one (1) day. The sentences were ordered to be served concurrently.

The evidence shows that on December 13, 1973, the Appellant entered the West Wilson Branch of the Lebanon Bank located at Mt. Juliet and by the use of a sawed-off shot gun, took from the employees there approximately twenty one thousand dollars ($21,000.00). As he left the bank, he took with him, as a hostage, Sherri McCulloch, one of the employees. The Appellant did not contest the fact that he robbed the bank but rested his defense upon insanity at the time of the commission of the offense.

In assignments of error one (1) and two (2), Appellant asserts that the trial court erred in not granting his motion to quash the indictments because both indictments were insufficient on their face and did not give proper and legal notice to Appellant concerning the charges of kidnapping and bank robbery which were brought against him. We disagree.

Appellant cites State v. Witherspoon, 115 Tenn. 138, 90 S.W. 852 (1906), where the Supreme Court held that an indictment must be sufficiently definite in its aver-ments, (1) to give a defendant notice of the particular crime with which he is charged and the nature of the elements thereof, (2) to the information of the court, that it may see a definite offense on record to apply the judgment and the punishment prescribed by law, and (3) must so describe and identify the offense that the judgment in the case could be relied on in another prosecution for the same offense upon a plea of former acquittal or jeopardy. See also State v. Overton, 193 Tenn. 171, 245 S.W.2d 188 (1951); Wheeler v. State, 220 Tenn. 155, 415 S.W.2d 121 (1967). Contrary to Appellant’s contentions, the indictments in the present case meet these tests.

T.C.A. § 39-2601 defines kidnapping as follows:

Any person who forcibly or unlawfully confines, inveigles, or entices away another, with the intent to cause him to be secretly confined, or imprisoned against his will, or to be sent out of the state [780]*780against his will, must, on conviction, be imprisoned in the penitentiary for not less than two (2) years nor more than ten (10) years, (emphasis added).

The indictment for kidnapping charged that on December 13, 1974, the defendant did,

Unlawfully, feloniously, and forcibly imprisoned Sherri McCullouch against her will and contrary to the statute and against the peace and dignity of the State of Tennessee, (emphasis added).

An indictment for a statutory offense need only describe the crime in the words of the statute or through words substituted which are equivalent to the words used in the statute or of more extensive signification. Riddle v. State, 50 Tenn. 401 (1871); State v. Smith, 119 Tenn. 521, 105 S.W. 68 (1907). The meaning of the statute was effectively conveyed to Appellant by the words used in the indictment.

The indictment tells Appellant when the alleged crime occurred. It tells against whom it was perpetrated. The language of the indictment that Appellant “[Unlawfully, feloniously, and forcibly imprisoned Sherri McCullouch against her will”, is sufficient to apprise the Appellant that kidnapping is the offense he is called upon to answer. This indictment could be relied upon in another prosecution for the same offense upon a plea of former acquittal or jeopardy. See Cowan v. State, 208 Tenn. 512, 347 S.W.2d 37 (1961).

The same rationale applies to the indictment charging Appellant with bank robbery.

T.C.A. § 39-3902 defines bank robbery as follows:

It shall be unlawful for any person to feloniously enter any banking house or place where moneys are kept on deposit and securities of any value deposited for safekeeping and by violence or putting in fear any person therein charged with the custody, care, or keeping of such money or securities of any value, to feloniously take and remove or attempt to take and remove from such banking house any such moneys or securities of any value; and any person so doing shall be deemed guilty of the crime of bank robbery.

The indictment for bank robbery charges that on December 13, 1974, the defendant did,

“Unlawfully and feloniously enter West Wilson Branch of Lebanon Bank where money was on deposit for safekeeping and did by violence therein feloniously, take and steal valuable personal property contrary to the statue (sic) and against the peace and dignity of the State of Tennessee.”

The indictment sufficiently apprises the Appellant that he is charged with robbing the West Wilson Branch of the Lebanon Bank on December 13, 1974. This indictment could clearly be relied upon in another prosecution for the same offense upon a plea of former acquittal or jeopardy.

Both indictments are also sufficient for the information of the trial court so that it could see a definite offense on record to apply the judgment and the punishment prescribed by law. No problems appear on the record to have been encountered by the trial judge in this regard.

Assignments of error one (1) and two (2) are overruled.

The Appellant says the trial court erred in not allowing him to introduce the recorded testimony which was given in a hearing on August 20, 1975, before another judge.

The hearing referred to was conducted to determine if the Appellant required hospitalization in Central State Hospital. We find nothing in the bill of exceptions which shows that the Appellant attempted to offer the transcript of the August 20, 1975, hearing into evidence at the convicting trial which was conducted December 16 and 17 of 1975. In the technical record is a motion filed by the Appellant asking that he be allowed to present the transcript. This was filed December 5,1975. There is nothing to indicate that the trial judge either granted or denied the relief sought in the petition.

[781]*781The trial court did not rule on the motion filed by the Appellant to introduce the transcript of the testimony given at the previous hearing. The mere presence of the motion in the record is of no legal efficacy, in the absence of a minute entry showing the judge’s ruling on such motion. Jones v. State, 197 Tenn. 667, 277 S.W.2d 371 (1955); Shye v. State, 506 S.W.2d 169 (Tenn.Cr.App.1973).

The Appellant did not attempt to introduce the transcript at the trial. An Appellant cannot complain or appeal about matters not raised in the trial court. Manning v. State, 500 S.W.2d 913 (Tenn.1973).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
556 S.W.2d 776, 1977 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 296, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/patty-v-state-tenncrimapp-1977.