Bigham v. State
| Decision Date | 05 November 1892 |
| Citation | 20 S.W. 577 |
| Parties | BIGHAM v. STATE. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Appeal from district court, Young county, GEORGE E. MILLER, Judge.
C. C. Bigham was convicted of burglary with intent to commit theft, and appeals. Affirmed.
C. W. Johnson and Arnold & Adams, for appellant. R. H. Harrison, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Defendant was indicted for burglary with intent to commit theft, and sentenced to three years in the penitentiary, from which he appeals. The defendant moves in arrest of judgment on the ground that the indictment charges no offense known to the laws of Texas. The indictment charges that the defendant did break and enter into the sheriff's office with force and fraud, and did then and there, by force and fraud, break and enter a certain vault, situated in said sheriff's office, then in the possession and control of the said sheriff, etc. The specific objection was that the indictment did not charge that a house was burglarized. Is this indictment fatally defective in not using the precise words of the statute,1 and alleging the sheriff's office was a "house?" It is declared by the Code that words used in a statute to define an offense need not be strictly pursued in an indictment; it is sufficient to use other words, conveying the same meaning, or which include the sense of the statutory words. Code Crim. Proc. art. 428a; Willson, Crim. St. §§ 1984, 1955. An "office," as defined by Webster, is "a house or apartment in which public officers and others transact business; as, a register's office, a lawyer's office." A "vault," by the same authority, is "a cellar." The indictment alleges the breaking and entry into the sheriff's office, and also into the vault situated in said office. The statutory definition of a "house" is, "any building or structure erected for public or private use." In the Anderson Case, 17 Tex. App. 305, this court has held that the corner of a store, picketed off as an office, where the books and accounts of the firm were kept, is a house, within the statutory definition, and so is an apartment in which public officers transact business. We think the place described in the indictment as being burglarized was necessarily a "house" as defined in the Code. A familiar illustration of this rule of construction arises under the statute punishing the "theft of cattle." An indictment alleging the theft of a steer was declared by BELL, J., to be sufficient without the further allegation of the same being cattle, (Lange's Case, 22 Tex. 591,) and this decision has always been followed, (Willson, Crim. St. § 1316.) And so in other states. Thus in Missouri, under a statute defining "burglary" to be the "breaking of any shop, store, booth, tent, warehouse, or other building," the indictment alleged the defendant did break and enter "the depot" of a certain...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Robinson v. State
...used in the statute, and this has always been the rule in Texas. Other cases so holding: Drummond v. State, 2 Tex. 156; Bigham v. State, 31 Tex. Cr. R. 244, 20 S. W. 577; Matthews v. State, 36 Tex. 675; Fowler v. State, 38 Tex. 559; Caldwell v. State, 2 Tex. App. 53; Sansbury v. State, 4 Te......
-
Davis v. State
...houses, but in all such it will be found that they were fixtures. See Anderson v. State, 17 Tex. Cr. App. [Tex. App.] 306; Bigham v. State, 31 Tex. Cr. R. 244 ; Willis v. State, 33 Tex. Cr. R. 168 . We would not be understood as holding that it is absolutely necessary that the structure, in......
-
Malazzo v. State, 29260
...burglary in the customary form, the indictment appears to be sufficient. Williams v. State, 24 Tex.App. 69, 5 S.W. 838; Bigham v. State, 31 Tex.Cr.App. 244, 20 S.W. 577; Coates v. State, 31 Tex.Cr.App. 257, 20 S.W. The breaking and entry of the house and the fact that the television was mis......
-
Williams v. State
...of burglary. In Barber v. State, supra, that a corncrib in which was kept feed in store for horses was such house. In Bigham v. State, 31 Tex. Cr. R. 244, 20 S. W. 577, that a sheriff's office and vault therein in the courthouse was such a house. In Favro v. State, 39 Tex. Cr. R. 452, 46 S.......