Chandler v. State, A-11731

• Decision Date: 18 March 1953
• Docket Number: No. A-11731,A-11731
• Citation: 255 P.2d 299,96 Okla.Crim. 344
• Parties: CHANDLER v. STATE.
• Court: United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

Page 299

255 P.2d 299

96 Okla.Crim. 344

CHANDLER v. STATE.

No. A-11731.

Criminal Court of Appeals of Oklahoma.

March 18, 1953.

Syllabus by the Court.

1. Where an information is so fundamentally defective that it wholly fails to state facts constituting a crime within the jurisdiction of the trial court, the question of its sufficiency may be raised for the first time on appeal.

2. The gist of the sufficiency of an information is not whether it might possibly have been made more certain, but whether it alleges every element of the offense intended to be charged and sufficiently apprises the defendant of what he must be prepared to meet.

3. In a prosecution for driving a motor vehicle on a highway while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, 47 O.S.1951 § 93, the essential elements of the crime which must be alleged in the information are: (1) the driving of a motor vehicle, (2) while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, and (3) on a highway as defined by statute. Where any one of these three essential elements are omitted from the information, it is fatally defective.

4. Information which merely alleged defendant drove an automobile while under the influence of intoxicating liquor and omitted an allegation that it was driven on a highway or street in the State of Oklahoma was insufficient to charge a crime under the statute prohibiting the driving of a motor vehicle on a public highway while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. 47 O.S.1951 § 93.

Sid White, Oklahoma City, for plaintiff in error.

Mac Q. Williamson, Atty. Gen., and James P. Garrett, Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendant in error.

JONES, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment rendered on a plea of guilty to an information filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Oklahoma County, allegedly charging the defendant, Charles Thomas Chandler, with committing the purported offense of 'driving while intoxicated.'

Only one issue is presented to this court by the appeal and that is whether the information is so fundamentally defective that it was insufficient to confer jurisdiction in the trial court to pronounce sentence on the plea of guilty.

The prosecution was instituted under the provisions of the statute making it unlawful to drive or operate a motor vehicle on any highway within this State while such person is under the influence of intoxicating liquor. 47 O.S.1951 § 93.

The information filed against the accused reads as follows:

'* * * on the 21st day of June, A.D., 1951, in Oklahoma County, State of Oklahoma, Charlie Thomas Chandler whose more full and correct name is to your information unknown, then and there being, did then and there wilfully, unlawfully and wrongfully commit the crime of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor in the manner and form as follows, to-wit:

'That is to say, the said defendant, in the county and state aforesaid, and on the day and year aforesaid, then and there being, did then and there wilfully, unlawfully and wrongfully, run, drive and operate a 1936 Ford Coupe Motor Vehicle, bearing 1951 Oklahoma License No. 1-96192, at and upon Guthrie Short Cut, from an unknown point to a point 1/2 mile north of N.E. 23rd Street, adjacent to Oklahoma City, in said county and state, while under the influence of intoxicating liquor; contrary to the form of the statutes in such cases made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the State of Oklahoma'.

It is established law, through a long line of decisions by this court, that the gist of the sufficiency of an information is not whether it might possibly have been made more certain, but whether it alleges every element of the offense intended to be charged and sufficiently apprises the defendant of what he must be prepared to meet. Argo v. State, 88 Okl.Cr. 107, 200 P.2d 449.

The essential elements of an information charging an offense under the statute here involved are: (1) the driving of a motor vehicle, (2) on a highway, as defined by statute, (3) the operator must be under the influence of intoxicating liquor.

In considering this information to determine whether these three essential elements are included in the allegations of such information, it is readily apparent that the first and third essential elements are present, but nowhere in said information is it alleged that the defendant drove such automobile on a highway. It is not even set forth in the caption where the offense is named. The word highway is not used and there is no word synonymous with highway, such as thoroughfare, driveway, street, passageway or any other word used anywhere in the information from which this court could reasonably infer that the place where the defendant allegedly drove the automobile was on a highway. The members of this court can look from the windows of their offices, situated on N.E. 23rd Street, and see an abandoned golf course, approximately 1/2 mile north of 23rd Street. Running east and west on the south side of the golf course is a paved road and adjacent to it on the north...