Anderson v. Com.
| Citation | 349 S.W.2d 826 |
| Parties | Martin Aaron ANDERSON, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee. |
| Decision Date | 29 September 1961 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
Stanley R. Hogg, Whitesburg, for appellant.
John B. Breckinridge, Atty. Gen., Wayne J. Carroll, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Appellant, Martin A. Aderson, aged 21, was convicted in the Letcher Circuit Court of the crime of carnally knowing a female under the age of 16, and sentenced to 10 years in the penitentiary. He prosecutes this appeal in forma pauperis.
The chief ground urged for reversal, which we conclude is meritorious, is that the lower court should have directed a verdict of acquittal because it was not proven that the crime was committed in Letcher County.
The Commonwealth at the trial relied solely upon the testimony of the prosecuting witness, Lorene Combs, in its endeavor to fix the situs of the offense in Letcher County. In response to a direct question propounded to her by the Commonwealth's attorney, she stated that the illegal act transpired in Letcher County. On cross-examination she said she knew the illicit deed occurred in Letcher County because the village of Colson, which she passed through the night the offense was committed and while in appellant's car, is in that county. Colson is in Letcher County near the Knott Conty line. In recounting the automobile trip she made which, when terminated, was followed by the commission of the offense, the prosecutrix testified that after appellant reached Colson, he continued to drive about a mile or two farther. She said it was dark at the time, that she was unfamiliar with the road on which the car traveled beyond Colson and that she did not know where she was when the car stopped.
Appellant testified he with the prosecutrix and also in company with one Claude Wright drove his car to Colson, passed on through this hamlet and then turned up alongside a creek into a place known as Sporty Hollow. We quote this further statement from his testimony:
Jim Short, a deputy sheriff of Letcher County, testified Sporty Hollow is in Knott County. In truth it seems not to be in dispute in the record that Sporty Hollow and Harve Hall's mine and the sawmill situated there are located in Knott County.
Venue in a criminal prosecution is a jurisdictional fact of locality averred in the indictment and is put in issue by a plea of not guilty. Click v. Commonwealth, Ky., 293 S.W.2d 877. It is fundamental that in order to establish the jurisdiction of the trial court in a given criminal case the Commonwealth must prove that the necessary elements of the crime charged were perpetrated in the county alleged in the indictment as the situs of the offense. See Rogers v. Commonwealth, Ky., 321 S.W.2d 779, and Woosley v. Commonwealth, Ky., 293 S.W.2d 625.
It appears the evidence in this case conclusively shows that the unlawful act was consummated in Knott County. Lorene Combs, the prosecutrix, testified in the affirmative when asked if the event...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Addington v. State
...court (Hagan v. State, 4 Kan. 89 (page 75 2nd Ed.)). * * *' (See, also, State v. Williams, 122 Mont. 279, 202 P.2d 24; Anderson v. Commonwealth, (Kentucky) 349 S.W.2d 826.) It will also be noted that the Kansas legislature used the word 'jurisdiction' in fixing the locale for prosecution of......
-
Brown v. Com.
...and not Kentucky, and Kentucky only has jurisdiction when all of the elements of the crime are committed in Kentucky. Anderson v. Commonwealth, Ky., 349 S.W.2d 826 (1961). The Commonwealth must have jurisdiction and must prove each element of the charged crime. Mullaney v. Wilbur, 421 U.S. ......
-
Sharp v. Waddill
...cases is a 'jurisdictional fact' put in issue by a plea of not guilty. Woosley v. Commonwealth, Ky., 293 S.W.2d 625; Anderson v. Commonwealth, Ky., 349 S.W.2d 826. However, it does not follow that an erroneous finding of venue, or even a complete failure of proof of venue, will render a jud......