Martin v. The State
| Decision Date | 06 October 1911 |
| Docket Number | 22,004 |
| Parties | Martin v. The State of Indiana |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
From Criminal Court of Marion County (39,575); Joseph T. Markey Judge.
Prosecution by The State of Indiana against Cordia Martin. From a judgment of conviction, defendant appeals.
Reversed.
Holtzman & Coleman and Cook & Cook, for appellant.
Thomas M. Honan, Attorney-General, Thomas H. Branaman, Edwin Corr and James E. McCullough, for the State.
The State instituted this prosecution by an affidavit filed in the Criminal Court of Marion County. This affidavit charged appellant with having committed the crime of burglary in Hancock county, Indiana, on December 29, 1910, with the felonious intent of stealing and carrying away divers goods and chattels belonging to the persons mentioned. It is further charged that appellant, after breaking into and entering the business house therein named, did unlawfully feloniously, etc., take, steal and carry away from said Hancock county the sum of $ 6,606.50 in money, the personal property, goods and chattels of certain persons named, and that thereafter he unlawfully and feloniously did bring said money as aforesaid into Marion county, Indiana, contrary to the provisions of the statutes, etc.
Appellant moved to quash the affidavit for various reasons, among which were the following: (1) The court had no jurisdiction to try appellant upon the charge presented, because the affidavit shows that the offense was committed in Hancock county and not in Marion county; (2) the affidavit did not charge a public offense. His motion was overruled. There was a trial by jury and a verdict returned against appellant, finding him guilty of burglary as charged in the affidavit, and that he was thirty years of age. Over his motion for a new trial wherein various reasons were assigned, the court rendered a judgment ordering that, for the offense committed, he be imprisoned in the Indiana state prison for a term of not less than ten years nor more than twenty years, and that he be disfranchised and rendered incapable of holding any office of profit or trust for a period of ten years.
In addition to the motion to quash, the jurisdiction of the lower court to try appellant on the charge presented was also sought to be raised by instructions tendered by appellant and refused by the court. Appellant has assigned the following errors: (1) The court had no jurisdiction of the offense charged. (2) The court had no jurisdiction of the person of appellant. (3) The affidavit does not state a public offense. (4) The court erred in overruling appellant's motion to quash the affidavit on each ground separately and severally stated. (5) The court erred in overruling the motion for a new trial.
Various questions are argued by appellant's counsel, but the cardinal one is, Had the State the right to try and convict appellant, over his objections, in the Criminal Court of Marion County for the offense of burglary committed in another county in this State?
Section thirteen of the bill of rights of the Constitution of this State provides: "In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right to a public trial by an impartial jury in the county in which the offense shall have been committed." Section 1867 Burns 1908, Acts 1905 p. 584, § 2, provides: "Every criminal action shall be tried publicly in the county in which the offense shall have been committed, except as otherwise provided in this act." Section 1875 Burns 1908, Acts 1905 p. 584, § 10, provides: "When property taken in one county by burglary, robbery, larceny or embezzlement, has been brought into another county, the jurisdiction is in either county."
We are not in this appeal called on to deal with a case where the accused party has been convicted of the offense of bringing property stolen in Hancock county into Marion county, but, as the Attorney-General on behalf of the State admits, the simple proposition is, Can the Criminal Court of Marion County take jurisdiction of and try...
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