State v. Balles

172 P. 196, 24 N.M. 16
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedApril 3, 1918
DocketNo. 2124
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 172 P. 196 (State v. Balles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Balles, 172 P. 196, 24 N.M. 16 (N.M. 1918).

Opinion

OPINION OP THE COURT.

PARKIER, J.

The appellant, Domingo Balles, was indicted for burglary in the district court for the county of Valencia. He was fdund guilty of that crime in the district court for the county of Bernalillo, and has perfected this appeal.

The evidence on the part of the state tended to disclose that the appellant and two companions went to the home of Romalo Romero in the early evening and brutally assaulted bim. They tied bim band and foot, placed a rope, around bis neck, eboked bim, stuck bim with a dagger, threatened his life by banging bim, and committed other brutal and cruel acts upon bim and bis wife, for the purpose of obtaining possession of a considerable sum of money which Romero was supposed to have concealed in his home. These facts were not disputed; the appellant’s defense consisting of an alibi.

[1] The appellant in the district court for Valencia county filed a motion for a change of venue. The motion was supported by affidavits. Before the same came on to be heard, the district attorney for the Seventh judicial district, Valencia county being one of the counties within that district, and counsel for the appellant entered into a written stipulation, by the terms of which it was agreed that this cause be tried in the district court of the Second judicial district, sitting in and for the county of Bernalillo, the stipulation reciting, among other things, the following:

“ * * * It being agreed between said respective counsel that it would be inconvenient and inexpedient to send said causes to either of the two remaining counties of the Seventh judicial' district, they have therefore agreed that, if the judge shall consent, which they respectfully request him to do, the venue in all of said causes may be changed to the county of Bernalillo on the filing of this agreement and the consent of the judge.”

Thereupon the venue of this cause was changed from Valencia county, in the Seventh - judicial district, to Bernalillo county, in the Second judicial district. Trial was had in the latter county, without any objection whatever on the part of the appellant as to the right of that court to hear and determine the case until after • verdict was returned finding appellant guilty. A motion in arrest of judgment was then made, wherein it was contended that the court trying the case'was without jurisdiction, and that is the first question presented here. The appellant contends that the territorial jurisdiction of the several district courts of the state is defined by the constitution, and that section 14 of article 2 of the state Constitution confers on accused persons the absolute right to a trial in the jurisdiction wherein the crime is alleged to have occurred. It is also argued by appellant’s counsel that the fact that appellant consented to be tried in a court in another district is immaterial, because jurisdiction cannot be conferred by consent. Reference is also made to sections 5570 and 5575, Code 1915, the first providing, in effect, that all criminal offenses shall be tried in the county in which they were committed, the second providing that, where change of venue is granted upon grounds other than those relating to the judge, the case shall be removed to some other county free from exception within the same judicial district.

While there is some conflict of authority as to the doctrines we shall announce under this first proposition, an examination of the cases convinces the court that the word “district” in section 14 of article 2 of the state constitution does not mean ‘ ‘ judicial district, ’ ’ but simply means territory over which a court may have jurisdiction ; that the right of a jury trial, as granted therein, constitutes a right or privilege which, in so far as the place of trial is concerned, may be waived by an accused person in a number of ways, and that, when he goes to trial in another judicial district, without objection on his part, he has waived the privilege, and cannot be heard to say that the court trying him was without jurisdiction. Thus in State v. Miller, 15 Minn. 344 (Gil. 277), the place of trial was changed from one county in one district to a county in a different district at the request of the state. The constitutional provision involved was the same as ours; the word district being «used. The court followed State v. Gut, 13 Minn. 343 (Gil. 315), holding that the Constitution was not violated by trial in another district; “district” being held to mean “trial district.” The most satisfactory case on the subject is that of Weyrich v. People, 89 Ill. 90. The court said:

“It is argued on behalf of plaintiff in error that the venue should have been changed either to Peoria, Marshall, Starlc, or Putnam counties, which are in the same judicial' circuit with Tazewell, and that changing to Logan county, which is in a different judicial circuit, was in violation of section 9, art. 2, of the Constitution, which provides that ‘in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right'to * * * a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the county or district in which the offense is alleged to have been committed.’ The objection is, in our opinion, based upon a misapprehension of the meaning of the word ‘district’ as here used. The plain object of this clause of the Constitution is to secure to the defendant the common-law right of trial by a jury of the visne or neighborhood where the offense is alleged to have been committed’, and to protect hirg^hgainst prosecution elsewhere. * * * A party is no more subject to be indicted and tried for the alleged commission of an offense in a different county in the same circuit than in a county in a different circuit. The creation of judicial circuits has not the slightest reference to the enforcement of this clause of the Constitution, but is solely for convenience in providing the requisite judicial force to administer the law throughout the state. The word ‘district’ is convertible with that of ‘county,’ and is descriptive of the territory which, in legal contemplation, comprises the visne over which the jurisdiction of the court for the purpose of prosecution for the commission of crimes and misdemeanors extends; and, although there may be many counties or districts in the same circuit, the court in each is entirely separate and disconnected from that in all of the others, and its jurisdiction, within the meaning of the clause under consideration, is limited by its territorial boundaries.”

In Olive v. State, 11 Neb. 1, 7 N. W. 444, the court said:

“In its ordinary meaning the word ‘district’ is commonly and properly used to designate any one of the various divisions or subdivisions in which the state is divided for political or other purposes, and may refer either to a congressional, judicial, senatorial, representative, school, or road district, depending always upon the connection in which it is used. In the clause quoted very clearly it refers to neither of these, and, although not synonymous' with the word ‘county,’ yet, by its connection with it, the intention evidently was that they should be taken in a similar sense, and as designating the precise portion of territory or division of the state over which a court, at any particular sitting, may exercise power in criminal matters. And- such division, by whatsoever name it may be known in legislation, is coextensive with and practically limited by this constitutional provision to that from which a jury * * * may legally he drawn.

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Bluebook (online)
172 P. 196, 24 N.M. 16, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-balles-nm-1918.