State v. Mallett

357 So. 2d 1105
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedApril 10, 1978
Docket60923 and 60924
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 357 So. 2d 1105 (State v. Mallett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Mallett, 357 So. 2d 1105 (La. 1978).

Opinion

357 So.2d 1105 (1978)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Wilfred James MALLETT.

Nos. 60923 and 60924.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

April 10, 1978.
Rehearing Denied May 19, 1978.

*1106 James A. Miguez, Milton P. Masinter, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Bernard N. Marcantel, Dist. Atty., Charles R. Cassidy, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

MARCUS, Justice.

Wilfred James Mallett was charged by two separate bills of information with the crimes of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile in violation of La.R.S. 14:92A(9), attempted theft of rice valued in excess of $500 in violation of La.R.S. 14:27, and criminal trespass in violation of Jefferson Davis Parish Ordinance No. 595, the latter two offenses being charged in separate counts in one bill of information. All three offenses charged are misdemeanors. The minutes reflect that the bills of information were consolidated for trial by agreement of counsel. After trial by jury, defendant was found guilty as charged of all three offenses. On his conviction for attempted *1107 theft of rice valued in excess of $500, defendant was sentenced to pay a fine of $200 plus court costs, in the default of the payment of which he was to serve three months in the parish jail, and to serve one year in the parish jail, which sentence was to run consecutively with any other sentence which defendant was to serve. On his conviction for criminal trespass in violation of the parish ordinance, he was sentenced to pay a fine of $100 plus court costs, in default of the payment of which he was to serve thirty days in the parish jail, which sentence was to run consecutively with the sentence imposed for his attempted theft conviction and any other sentence which defendant was to serve. On his conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, defendant was sentenced to pay a fine of $500 plus court costs, in default of the payment of which he was to serve thirty days in the parish jail, and to serve six months in the parish jail, which sentence was to run consecutively with the above two sentences and any other sentence which defendant was to serve. Defendant was given credit toward service of his sentences for time spent in actual custody prior to the imposition of sentences. On appeal, he relies on seven assignments of error for reversal of his convictions and sentences.[1]

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1

Defendant contends the trial judge erred in denying his motions to quash the bills of information. He argues that Jefferson Davis Parish Ordinance No. 595 under which he was charged with the offense of criminal trespass is unconstitutionally vague and the bills of information in which he was charged with the three offenses failed to adequately inform him of the nature and cause of the accusations against him.

Article I, section 13 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 provides that, in a criminal prosecution, an accused shall be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him. This constitutional guarantee requires that penal statutes and ordinances describe the unlawful conduct with sufficient particularity and clarity that ordinary men of reasonable intelligence are capable of discerning its meaning and conforming their conduct thereto. State v. Tucker, 354 So.2d 1327 (La.1978); State v. Defrances, 351 So.2d 133 (La.1977); State v. dela Beckwith, 344 So.2d 360 (La. 1977); State v. Lindsey, 310 So.2d 89 (La. 1975). Under the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution, words and phrases used in statutes and ordinances must not be so vague and indefinite that any penalty prescribed for their violation would constitute a taking of liberty or property without due process of law. Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville, 405 U.S. 156, 92 S.Ct. 839, 31 L.Ed.2d 110 (1972); Lanzetta v. New Jersey, 306 U.S. 451, 59 S.Ct. 618, 83 L.Ed. 888 (1939); State v. Tucker, supra; State v. dela Beckwith, supra; State v. Lindsey, supra.

Jefferson Davis Parish Ordinance No. 595 provides in pertinent part:

SECTION 1. Criminal trespass by hunters and/or fishermen in Jefferson Davis Parish, outside the corporate limits of municipalities, is hereby defined as follows:
Criminal trespass is the intentional and unauthorized entry upon any lands of another by persons engaged in hunting and/or fishing activities under any one or more of the following circumstances, to-wit:
(1) When the land entered is land that is being regularly cultivated for crop production in a plan of crop husbandry and crop rotation, or
(2) When the land entered has been enclosed by fences or other barriers, or
(3) When the land entered is not cultivated land nor enclosed land but upon the boundaries of which signs have been erected at regular intervals on the boundaries in such manner as to reasonably *1108 notify the public that such lands are posted against hunting and fishing.

. . . . .

We consider that this provision gives a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice that his contemplated conduct is forbidden by the ordinance. Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville, supra. Accordingly, the ordinance is not unconstitutionally vague.

In one of the bills of information, the state charged that defendant, "a person over seventeen years of age, did unlawfully contribute to the delinquency of a juvenile by intentionally permitting his son Michael a juvenile 13 years of age, to violate a law of the state to-wit: attempted theft La.R.S. 14:27 and Ordinance No. 595 trespassing of Jefferson Davis Parish, (a misdemeanor) in violation of La.R.S. 14:92(9)." [2] This charge closely tracked the language of La.R.S. 14:92A(9). Although the citation of the statute under which defendant was charged was erroneous in that it referred to the pertinent statute as La.R.S. 14:92(9) rather than as La.R.S. 14:92A(9), under La.Code Crim.P. art. 464, error in the citation or its omission shall not be ground for dismissal of the indictment or for reversal of a conviction if the error or omission did not mislead the defendant to his prejudice. No showing is made in the instant case that defendant was prejudiced by the error in the statutory citation. Hence, the error in the citation is not a ground for reversal of defendant's conviction on the charge of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.

In the second bill of information defendant was charged in count one with the unlawful "attempt to commit theft of rice valued in excess of $500.00 from storage bins owned by Truman J. Fear, Jr., with the intent of permanently depriving the owner of the rice, (a misdemeanor) in violation of La.R.S. 14:27." The charge substantially traced the language of La.R.S. 14:67, the general theft article, which provides:

Theft is the misappropriation or taking of anything of value which belongs to another, either without the consent of the other to the misappropriation or taking, or by means of fraudulent conduct, practices or representations. An intent to deprive the other permanently of whatever may be the subject of the misappropriation or taking is essential.

. . . . .

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Bluebook (online)
357 So. 2d 1105, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mallett-la-1978.