Tracy v. People
| Decision Date | 06 May 1918 |
| Docket Number | 9172,9173. |
| Citation | 176 P. 280,65 Colo. 226 |
| Parties | TRACY v. PEOPLE. |
| Court | Colorado Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied Dec. 2, 1918.
Error to District Court, Otero County; Charles S. Essex, Judge.
J. A Tracy was convicted of obtaining money by false pretenses and brings error. Affirmed.
Sabin, Haskins & Sabin, of La Junta, and J. A Tracy, of Ft. Morgan, for plaintiff in error.
Leslie E. Hubbard, Atty. Gen., and Bertram B. Beshoar and Miss Clara Ruth Mozzor, Asst. Attys. Gen., for the People.
In this case defendant below was tried and convicted under section 1849, R. S. 1908, for obtaining money by false pretenses. Defendant is a real estate man and land locator. He was tried upon two informations, which were consolidated. They alleged in substance that he obtained money from the prosecuting witnesses, two sisters, for showing them a certain tract of land which he said was Section 26 in Township 26 South, Range 59 West, and open to public entry, but which was in fact not such section and not part of the public domain, the real Section 26 being greatly inferior land and some distance away from that shown by the defendant. The information also sets up other alleged false and fraudulent statements as made by defendant in reference to the character of the land, the possibility of cultivating it without irrigation, and other particulars, all of which it is claimed by the prosecuting witnesses were urged as inducements to them to file on Section 26.
As a result of these acts of defendant, the prosecuting witnesses did file on said Section 26, one of the women filing on the west one-half and the other on the east one-half, of the section, and each is alleged to have paid defendant $300.00 for his services. When they attempted to go upon the land shown to them by defendant as Section 26, they discovered that it was not such section, and was not subject to entry, and that the other representations made to them by defendant were false.
Defendant was found guilty as charged in both of the informations, and was sentenced to a term of from six to eight years in the penitentiary. He brings the case here for review on error.
It is alleged and vigorously urged by the defendant that the informations in the two cases are fatally defective in that they fail to state any offense under the statute, and that they are not sufficiently specific as to the land claimed to have been shown to the prosecuting witnesses as Section 26.
It has been repeatedly held in this State that an indictment or information is sufficient which describes an offense either in the language of the statute or so plainly that the nature of the crime may be readily and easily understood by a jury. Dougherty v. People, 1 Colo. 514; Cohen v. People, 7 Colo. 274, 3 P. 385; Imboden v. People, 40 Colo. 142, 90 P. 608; Knepper v. People, 167 P. 779.
In this case both informations are identical except that in one the false pretense are alleged to have been made to one Tillie Thede as to the east one-half of Section 26, and in the other to Minnie Thede, as to the west one-half of such section.
Defendant contends that although he is charged with having obtained money from the prosecuting witnesses by showing them a certain tract of land and representing it as the said Section 26, and open to government entry, when in truth and in fact it was not, for the purpose of locating them on that section, there is no allegation that the women did in fact file on Section 26, and therefore the informations are fatally defective. The essential parts of the informations so far as they are here involved, are as follows:
'* * * That J. A. Tracy on or about the 6th day of April, A. D. 1916, at the County of Otero, State of Colorado, did then and there feloniously, knowingly and designedly did falsely pretend to one * * * Thede that a certain tract of land located in the County of Otero, State of Colorado was the west one-half of Section 26, * * * and that the same was subject to government entry and was located in a region that without irrigation good crops * * * could be grown on the land and in said region and locality, and that said land was located four or five miles from the town of Bloom, a good town with several stores and good lumber yard, which said false pretenses were then and there made by the said J. A. Tracy with the design and for the purpose of inducing the said * * * Thede to pay him, the said J. A. Tracy the sum of Three Hundred Dollars for locating her, the said * * * Thede upon said land and paying the filing fee upon the same; and the said * * * Thede relying upon and believing the said false pretenses to be true and being deceived thereby was then and there induced by reason thereof to pay to the said J. A. Tracy the sum of Three Hundred Dollars, by which said false pretenses he, the said J. A. Tracy, with intent to cheat and defraud the said * * * Thede, feloniously and fraudulently, designedly and knowingly, did obtain from the said * * * Thede * * * the total value of Three Hundred Dollars of the personal property, goods, chattels and moneys of the said * * * Thede, whereas in truth and in fact the said tract shown to the said * * * Thede was not the west one-half of Section 26 * * * and was not land that was subject to government entry, and was not land upon which good crops * * * could be grown, and that the true location of the said west one-half of Section 26 * * * was other than the location shown to the said * * * Thede, and was rough, hilly land and not so desirable as the tract shown to the said * * * Thede, by the said J. A. Tracy, and that the said town of Bloom did not possess a lumber yard and had but one small store; all of which said false pretenses he, the said J. A. Tracy, at the time he so falsely pretended as aforesaid, well knew to be false, contrary to the form of statute. * * *'
These informations are good if defendant is advised with sufficient certainty of the offense with which he is charged, and if the offense is so clearly set out that judgment may be passed thereon. The essentials of an indictment or information for obtaining property by false pretenses are thus enumerated in 11 R.C.L. 857:
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People v. Gable
...An indictment must be definite enough to give defendant sufficient notice of the crime alleged to prepare a defense, Tracy v. People, 65 Colo. 226, 176 P. 280 (1917), and to enable defendant to plead its resolution as a bar to subsequent proceedings. People v. Zupancic, supra. An indictment......
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...in language from which the nature of the offense may be readily understood by the accused and jury. 'To the same effect are Tracy v. People, 65 Colo. 226, 176 P. 280 and Wright v. People, 116 Colo. 306, 181 P.2d 447. 'In the case at bar, there is ample evidence establishing that lumber comp......
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Ciccarelli v. People
...in language from which the nature of the offense may be readily understood by the accused and jury. To the same effect are Tracy v. People, 65 Colo. 226, 176 P. 280 and Wright v. People, 116 Colo. 306, 181 P.2d 447. In the case at bar, there is ample evidence establishing that the lumber co......
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People v. Zupancic, 27118
...give the defendant sufficient notice of the crime that has allegedly been committed so that a defense may be prepared. Tracy v. People, 65 Colo. 226, 176 P. 280 (1918). Second, it must define the acts which constitute the crime with sufficient definiteness so that the defendant may plead th......
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ARTICLE 3
...the offense be charged in language from which the nature of it may be readily understood by the accused and the jury. Tracy v. People, 65 Colo. 226, 176 P. 280 (1918); Sarno v. People, 74 Colo. 528, 223 P. 41 (1924). One count may contain different ways crime committed. It is proper in one ......
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ARTICLE 3 OFFENSES AGAINST THE PERSON
...the offense be charged in language from which the nature of it may be readily understood by the accused and the jury. Tracy v. People, 65 Colo. 226, 176 P. 280 (1918); Sarno v. People, 74 Colo. 528, 223 P. 41 (1924). One count may contain different ways crime committed. It is proper in one ......