State v. Mares

294 P.2d 284, 61 N.M. 46
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 28, 1956
Docket5998
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 294 P.2d 284 (State v. Mares) 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. Mares, 294 P.2d 284, 61 N.M. 46 (N.M. 1956).

Opinion

KIKER, Justice.

In the District Court of Quay County, New Mexico, there was filed in criminal cause No. 2962 on the docket, an information for and in the name and behalf of the State- of New Mexico, which, except for formal statements, charged the defendant as follows: “That Louis Mares committed burglary of the dwelling of Loyd Larritson.”

On the same day as the information was filed, the defendant, accompanied by his then attorneys, appeared before the court and entered a plea of not guilty to the said information. Thereafter, the attorneys who were with defendant at the time of his plea of not guilty withdrew from the case and, on the 1st day of June, 1955, defendant appeared in court with the attorney who thereafter represented him and still does. Defendant’s attorney then moved to quash the said information on the ground that the same was not properly verified. The motion was overruled by the trial court and the case was set to be tried seven days later, on June 8, 1955.

On the 6th day of June, the District Attorney abandoned the original information and filed in the same case and under the same number a new' information denominated “amended information.”

On the 8th day of June, the defendant appeared before the court and was called for arraignment on the so-called amended information. This information was in exact form as the former information, except that it charged as follows: “That Louis Mares burglarized an out-house belonging to Loyd Larritson in the nighttime.” It was properly verified.

At the arraignment, defendant’s attorney stated that he understood the information was an amendment of the original information and that he would renew his objection to the jurisdiction of the court on the ground that the original information was not properly verified and that there was nothing that could be amended. The court overruled the motion and the defendant entered a plea of not guilty. The defendant, by his attorney, remarked, “Subject to the motion, the defendant will plead not guilty.” The court thereupon stated that a plea of not guilty would be entered and that the defendant would be held under bond of $1,000. Both parties then having stated that they were ready for trial, the jury was duly empaneled and sworn to try the case. After a recess of ten minutes, the jury was recalled and defendant’s attorney stated that he wished to make a motion on the amended information. Whereupon the court stated that the record should show that the jury had been selected and sworn to try the issues raised by the plea to the amended information, which had been read to defendant in the presence of his attorney, and that the defendant had announced ready for trial. Defendant’s attorney stated that he had understood that the so-called amended information went to the matter of verification only and in no way changed the offense charged, and that the plea had been entered immediately after he had received the amended information. The court called attention to the fact that a plea had been entered on a previous date and that then date for trial had been set. Defendant’s attorney then said he wished the record to show that the charge upon which defendant was being tried was an entirely different crime from that charged in the original information and that he objected. The objection was overruled and the trial proceeded upon the new information.

The defendant has stated four assignments of error and has presented the matters complained of under four separate points.

In the first assignment, appellant says that the original information filed herein was verified upon information and belief by another than the District Attorney, who, only, under our rules, can so verify criminal informations. This contention, if worthy, of notice, is disposed of by Trial Court Rule appearing at Section 41-6-4(2). N.M.S.A.1953, which reads as follows:

“(2) No objection to an information on the ground that it was not subscribed or verified, as above provided, shall be made after moving to quash or pleading to the merits.”

See also State v. Jones, 52 N.M. 118, 192 P.2d 559, and cases therein cited.

Appellant’s second attack upon the verdict is that the so-called amended information was filed without leave of court and was unauthorized and void, being an amendment as to substance. It seems that the State is willing to concede that the second information in the same cause in the District Court was an amendment to the first information. It is not just clear that this is the fact. The first of the informations charges the burglary of a dwelling house belonging to a certain owner and the second charges that an outhouse belonging to the same owner was burglarized in the nighttime. It would seem that the information which was filed last was either one of two in the same case, or else it was a substitute for that first filed. The information filed first was of no importance whatever in the trial of the instant case. The defendant was tried for the burglary in the nighttime of an outhouse, the property of Loyd Larritson. No other consideration to the matter of filing the informations need be given, than to say that defendant, in the presence of his attorney, and after the information had been read in the hearing of both defendant and his attorney, entered a plea of not guilty and within a few minutes thereafter announced that defendant was ready for trial on the second information; and that the jury was then impaneled and sworn. The attack upon the information last filed was later made, during a recess. The attack not only came too late, but it must be said that the trial court gave its assent to the filing of the second information by having the defendant plead to it, knowing it was on file, and by having a jury empaneled and sworn to try the case.

The third proposition stated by appellant for the consideration of this court is, “The amended information was insufficient to invoke the jurisdiction of the court in that it did not charge a public offense.”

The information upon which defendant was tried charges that “Louis Mares burglarized an outhouse belonging to Loyd Laritson in the nighttime.”

Section 41-6-7, N.M.S.A.1953, provides that an information is valid and sufficient when the charge is made :

“(a) By using the name given to the offense by the common law or by a statute.
“(b) By stating so much of the definition of the offense, either in terms of the common law or of the statute defining the offense or in terms of substantially the same meaning, as is sufficient to give the court and the defendant notice of what offense is intended to be charged.”

Burglary, as known to common law, is punishable under Section 40-9-1, N.M.S.A. 1953. Several sections following that have headnotes which make use of the term burglary, but the headnotes are no part of the legislative enactment. The offenses in each of these sections made punishable are statutory offenses. Section 40-9-7, N.M.S.A. 1953, provides:

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Bluebook (online)
294 P.2d 284, 61 N.M. 46, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mares-nm-1956.