Amaya v. State, 52221
Decision Date | 25 May 1977 |
Docket Number | No. 52221,52221 |
Citation | 551 S.W.2d 385 |
Parties | Aurora G. AMAYA, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
This is an appeal from a conviction for welfare fraud. Art. 695c, Sec. 34, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. The court found appellant guilty and assessed punishment at a fine of fifty dollars and two years in jail, probated.
Appellant contends that the trial court erred in overruling her exception to the information. We sustain this contention and reverse.
Article 695c, Section 34, V.A.C.S., provides:
Omitting the formal parts, the information alleges that:
"on or about the 1 day of May A. D. 1974, and before the filing of this information, in said County of El Paso, State of Texas, AURORA G. AMAYA did then and there intentionally and knowingly obtain by means of a willfully false statement assistance from the State of Texas Department of Public Welfare such assistance to which she was not entitled."
The information tracks the pertinent portion of the statute and also alleges the required culpability.
However, the information makes no attempt to set out the specific "willfully false statement" the appellant is alleged to have made. The appellant called this precise omission to the attention of the trial court prior to trial by filing a written exception to the information. 1
Appellant labelled this exception an exception to the substance of the information. See Art. 27.08, Vernon's Ann.C.C.P. However, appellant's complaint in the exception was that because of the omission of the particular false statement, the information did not allege the offense "with such particularity and certainty that the Defendant, who is presumed innocent, may ascertain fully the matters charged against her and to know the charges which she must meet."
Thus, appellant's complaint was that she did not have sufficient notice of the precise charge against her. In American Plant Food Corp. v. State, 508 S.W.2d 598 (Tex.Cr.App.1974), we held that such a complaint constitutes a challenge to the form, rather than the substance, of an indictment or information. Art. 27.09, V.A.C.C.P.
Of course, we are not bound by the label a defendant gives to a defect in an indictment or information. See American Plant Food Corp. v. State, supra. However, we conclude that the specified omission in this information is not a defect of substance which renders the information fundamentally defective. The information as drafted alleges an offense in the language of the statute and also alleges the required culpable mental states. We think this is sufficient to charge an offense. Art. 27.08(1), V.A.C.C.P. American Plant Food Corp. v. State, supra.
Nonetheless, Art. 27.09, V.A.C.C.P., provides in part that:
Art. 21.21(7) requires that an information set forth the offense in plain and intelligible words. In American Plant Food, we held:
"If the charge is sufficient in substance under Article 27.08(1), supra, it may still be subject to an exception under Article 27.09(2), supra, for some deficiency under Article 21.21(7), as that provision is...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
DeVaughn v. State
...Cruise v. State, 587 S.W.2d 403 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Haecker v. State, 571 S.W.2d 920 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); Amaya v. State, 551 S.W.2d 385 (Tex.Cr.App.1977). In the face of timely motion to quash an indictment, the indictment must allege on its face the facts necessary to show that the offense w......
-
Daniels v. State
...Lindsay v. State, 588 S.W.2d 570 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Cruise v. State, 587 S.W.2d 403 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Amaya v. State, 551 S.W.2d 385 (Tex.Cr.App.1977). We do further note that the meaning of "constructive transfer" has been addressed by this Court but not in the context of a motion to quas......
-
Brasfield v. State
...but by his motion or exception may insist on "a specific allegation of what the State will rely upon to convict," Amaya v. State, 551 S.W.2d 385, 387 (Tex.Cr.App.1977). Also Cruise v. State, 587 S.W.2d 403, 404 (Tex.Cr.App.1979) and Garza v. State, (Tex.Cr.App. 1980). 5 That thread was brok......
-
Bynum v. State
...Cruise v. State, 587 S.W.2d 403 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Haecker v. State, 571 S.W.2d 920 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); Amaya v. State, 551 S.W.2d 385 (Tex.Cr.App.1977). In the face of timely motion to quash an indictment, the indictment must allege on its face the facts necessary to show that the offense w......