Wilburn v. Territory of New Mexico

10 N.M. 402, 10 Gild. 402
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 23, 1900
Docket851
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 10 N.M. 402 (Wilburn v. Territory of New Mexico) 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
Wilburn v. Territory of New Mexico, 10 N.M. 402, 10 Gild. 402 (N.M. 1900).

Opinion

CRUMPACKER, J.

At a special term of the district court of the fourth judicial district of the Territory of New Mexico, within and for the county of Union, the defendant, John Wilburn, on the first day of July, 1897, was indicted by the grand jury of said district court, said indictment charging “that said John Wilburn, in the said county and Territory, one cow, of the value of twenty-five dollars, of the goods,, property and chattels of Candido Garcia, feloniously and unlawfully did steal, take and drive away, contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided.” Upon arraignment the defendant pleaded not guilty, and the case having been removed to Colfax county, the defendant was there placed upon his trial, and was found guilty as charged in the indictment and sentenced by the court to five years imprisonment in the Territorial penitentiary and to pay a fine of one thousand dollars. From the judgment and decision of said court the defendant has appealed to this court assigning 19 errors, which may all be disposed of in the consideration of the following points discussed in appellant’s brief. First — That the indictment was fatally defective in not charging any crime against the laws of the Territory. Second — That the court erred in overruling appellant’s challenge to juror J. H. Smith and in allowing him to sit as a juror in the case. Third — That there was no evidence to sustain the verdict and that improper evidence was admitted and proper evidence excluded on the trial. Fourth — That the court erred in its instructions in regard to larceny and also in regard to the defense of an alibi; and, Fifth — That the court erred in sentencing defendant, the law limiting the punishment in this case to imprisonment in the county jail. These will be considered here in the above order.

Criminal law: indictment: larceny: description. 1. Passing over appellee’s objections to our consideration of the question of the sufficiency of the indictment, we find the word “cow,” as used in the indictment, to be used in its general and ordinary sense, meaning the mature female of bovine animals. Under sec-tion C. L. 1897, the description in an indict-ment laid under section 79, C. L. 1897, of an animal of the bovine kind, is sufficient. Cow,being of such kind, and a sufficient term, the objection to the indictment was properly overruled. Territory v. Christman (N. M.), 58 Pac. 343.

Pbactice: criminal law: selection of jury: discretion of court. 2. The grounds of objection to juror Smith were that he was a member of an association organized for the prosecution of parties suspected of the larceny of cattle, and that he subscribed money for the purpose of prosecuting people charged with that crime, or suspected of the crime of larceny of animals. The challenge was tried by the court, and its decision rests upon a sound discretion, and unless it appear from the evidence that the court abused its discretion, its action thereon must be sustained. The evidence appearing in this record upon the trial of the challenge clearly warrants the conclusion of law to support the judgment of the court thereon.

Criminal law: asportation: evidence of. 3. All the material questions raised under the fourth point, are disposed of in considering appellant’s contention of no asportation proven. The Territory proved that appellant was seen driving this cow; that he was seen to drive it a distance of about 600 yards, that a shot was then heard, and that in a very, . n . short space of time thereafter appellant was again seen in the act of skinning the cow, and that the carcass of the animal was afterward discovered with the skin and other parts of the animal removed. Appellant’s counsel argued that because this driving and skinning of the cow took place within the pasture of appellant’s employer, where it is contended “the cow was by the consent of its owner,” the territory has not found any ' taking in any legal sense, and his counsel ask: “Was not that cow lying there dead at all times from the moment she fell to the time when this indictment was found, two years later, in the possession of the owner as much as while she was in his pasture alive ?” While we do not find any evidence in the record that the cow was by its owner’s consent in the pasture of appellant’s employer, still, upon the statement of facts recited in appellant’s brief, we must conclude that the driving of the animal and carrying away of parts of it, thereby depriving the owner of the immediate possession of it, was such a taking by appellant, as, in view of the felonious intent shown by the evidence in this case, would constitute the element of asportation in the statutory crime of larceny of neat cattle. This is too plain to require citation of authorities.

Crimin'al law: practice: alibi: buraen oí proof, 4. On the trial the appellant introduced evidence tending to support an alibi, and the court in the ninth instruction instructed the jury as to the law thereon. The appellant objects to that part of the instruction whereby the jury were told that the burden of proof is upon the defendant to prove an alibi. By the same in-. , . . struction the court instructed the jury that “when the proof is in, then the primary question is (the whole evidence being considered, both that given by the defendant and the Territory) is the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The law being that when the jury have considered all the evidence as well that touching the question of the alibi as the criminating evidence introduced by the prosecution — then if they have any reasonable doubt of the guilt of the accused of the offense with which he stands charged, they shall acquit him, otherwise not.” Similar instructions have been sustained in this court in the cases-of Trujillo v. Territory, 7 N. M. 44, and Borrego v. Territory, 8 N. M. 477, and in many of the states. But conceding the correctness of the rule as contended for by appellant’s counsel, it is manifest that the term, burden of proof, as used in this instruction, and as it so frequently is used in many of the decisions and by some text writers — does not imply that the defendant must prove his defense by such evidence as will satisfy a jury that his defense is true, but only that after the Territory has made out its case, it devolves upon the accused to introduce evidence, if he has any, to prove his alibi, if he relies upon such a defense. In that sense the burden is upon the accused, and in order to maintain it he is bound to establish in its support such facts and circumstances as are sufficient when considered in connection with all the other evidence in the case to create in the minds of the jury a reasonable doubt of his guilt. Carlton v. People, 150 Ill. 181. Certainly no fairly intelligent jury could have understood the charge of the court in any other sense when they were instructed by the court in the same connection, “that when the proof is all in then the primary question is — the whole evidence being considered, both that given for the defendant and the Territory — is the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?” We are aware that the expression, “the burden of proof is upon the defendant to make out his proof of an alibi” has been criticized by a few courts and text writers. Bish. Crim. Proc., Sec. 1066. But when these cases are carefully considered it will be seen that the criticism has no application to the expression as used by the court in the case at bar. State v. Thornton, 41 L. R. A. 530; State v. Mahey, 74 Io. 77; 37 N. W. 2.

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Bluebook (online)
10 N.M. 402, 10 Gild. 402, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilburn-v-territory-of-new-mexico-nm-1900.