Houston v. State

• Decision Date: 24 October 1905
• Citation: 39 So. 468,50 Fla. 90
• Parties: HOUSTON v. STATE.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

39 So. 468

50 Fla. 90

HOUSTON v. STATE.

Florida Supreme Court, Division B.

October 24, 1905

Error to Circuit Court, Hillsborough County; Joseph B. Wall, Judge.

R. H Houston was convicted of murder, and brings error. Affirmed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

The ruling of a trial court denying a motion to quash an indictment must be embraced in the record proper, in order that this court may consider an assignment of error based thereon.

When a grand jury is informed of the instrumentalities used in effecting a homicide and of the manner of the death, these should be set forth in the indictment; but when the grand jury is satisfied that an unlawful homicide has been committed, and the evidence does not satisfactorily show how it was accomplished, the form of the indictment used in this case is approved.

Where circumstantial evidence points strongly to the defendant as the guilty agent in causing the death of a party, who is clearly shown to have met a violent death, and is without material conflict, this court cannot say that the jury were not warranted in concluding that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

COUNSEL

G. B. Well, for plaintiff in error.

W. H Ellis, Atty. Gen., for the State.

OPINION

HOCKER J.

On the 16th of December, 1904, the grand jury of Hillsborough county presented an indictment in the circuit court against R. H Houston in the following words and figures: 'The State of Florida v. R. H. Houston. Indictment for Murder.

'In the name and by the authority of the State of Florida:

'In the circuit court of the Sixth judicial circuit of the state of Florida, in and for the county of Hillsborough, at the fall term thereof, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and four, Hillsborough county, to wit:

'The grand jurors of the state of Florida, inquiring in and for the county of Hillsborough, upon their oaths present that R. H. Houston, whose Christian name is to the grand jurors unknown, late of the county of Hillsborough aforesaid, in the circuit and state aforesaid, on the 26th day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and four, at and in the county of Hillsborough aforesaid, did unlawfully, and from a premeditated design to effect the death of one Robert Story, make an assault on the said Robert Story, and in some way and manner and by some means, instruments, and weapons to the jurors unknown he, the said R. H. Houston, whose Christian name is to the jurors unknown, did then and there unlawfully, and from a premeditated design to effect the death of the said Robert Story, inflict on and create in the said Robert Story certain mortal injuries and a mortal sickness, a further description whereof is to the jurors unknown, of which mortal injuries and sickness to the jurors unknown the said Robert Story then and there died. And so the said R. H. Houston, whose Christian name is to the jurors unknown, did, in the manner and form aforesaid, unlawfully, and from a premeditated design to effect the death of the said Robert Story, kill and murder the said Robert Story, contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the state of Florida.'

Houston was tried on the 18th day of January, 1905, found guilty of murder in the first degree with recommendation to mercy, and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. He seeks a reversal here on writ of error.

There is an assignment of error based on action of the trial court in denying a motion to quash the indictment; but, as the motion to quash is not contained in the record proper, we cannot consider it. Hearn v....