Crass v. State

• Decision Date: 16 December 1891
• Parties: CRASS v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

17 S.W. 1096

CRASS v. STATE.

Court of Appeals of Texas.

December 16, 1891.

Appeal from district court, Bell county; W. A. BLACKBURN, Judge.

Prosecution against Alf Crass for assault with intent to murder. From a conviction defendant appeals. Reversed.

Harris & Saunders, for appellant. Richard H. Harrison, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

WHITE, P. J.

Appellant was indicted for an assault with intent to murder one D. C. Walden, and the offense was alleged to have been committed on the 19th day of December, 1890. This indictment was presented and filed in the district court on February 19, 1891. It is a well-settled rule of criminal practice that the date of an alleged offense, as stated in an indictment, is not binding upon the state, and is only material in reference to the bar of limitations, and to show that the offense was committed anterior to the presentment of the indictment. The time of the commission of the offense laid in the indictment is not material, and does not conflict with the proof, where the limitations are not complete. The indictment will be satisfied by proof of the offense on any day anterior to the finding and presentment of the indictment. Cudd v. State, 28 Tex. App. 124, 12 S. W. Rep. 1010; Arcia v. State, 28 Tex. App. 198, 12 S. W. Rep. 599; Abrigo v. State, 29 Tex. App. 143, 15 S. W. Rep. 408. Under the indictment in this case, it was competent to prove the offense to have been committed at any time prior to the 19th day of February, 1891; but, as shown by the defendant's bill of exceptions No. 1, the prosecution was permitted to prove by the prosecuting witness, over defendant's objection, that on the night of March 7, 1891, which was subsequent to the presentment and filing of the indictment, some parties were around his house, and fired off their pistols near his house, and one of them, whose voice he recognized as that of the defendant, Alf Crass, hallooed out, "Git from here," and that he recognized the other as the voice of Jake Rampy. It is also shown by said bill of exceptions that the district attorney further asked the witness if any assault had been made upon him after the disturbance he had testified about, on March 7th, which question being objected to, the objection was overruled, and the witness permitted to answer, and state that he had gone to bed on the night of March 8, 1891, when some one shot him through his window, the ball striking his arm, and the wound necessitating amputation. "It is an established rule," says...