Barnes, the appellant, was convicted of grand larceny and sentenced to one year in the state penitentiary.
He says the description of the property in the indictment was not legally sufficient. Omitting the formal parts, the indictment charged that: “L. C. Barnes on the 5th day of July 1956 in the County and District aforesaid did wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously take, steal, and carry away ten 110 pound sacks of Dairy Feed of the value of $3.50 each, of the total value of $35.00 the personal property of Glaze Anderson.”
In the following Mississippi cases the descriptions of the property contained in the indictments were held to be good:
In Brown v. State,
In Jackson v. State,
In Daniels v. State,
In Cook v. State,
In Hill v. State,
Barnes cites and relies upon Pitts v. State,
Barnes relies mainly on the Rutherford case. The indictment charged Rutherford with the theft of “a quantity of clover seed, the personal property of Charles Fletcher, and of the value of more than $25 in lawful money.” The Court held that description insufficient. But the Court further said: “It is a matter of common knowledge that the property in the instant case could have been readily described in the indictment either as an approximate number of pounds of clover seed and of the value of $170 or as being about 8% sacks of clover seed, weighing approximately 100 pounds each, and of the value of a stated sum per sack or 100 pounds, oías being a specified number of bushels of clover seed of a stated value per bushel, thereby giving such individuality to the transaction as to enable the defendant, if acquitted or convicted under the indictment, to- plead former acquittal or former conviction of such offense.” It will be noted that the indictment failed to state the quantity of the property sold. It used the vague, general term “a quantity”. It will be noted, too, that the indictment in the case at bar did do just what the opinion suggested might have been done in the Rutherford case to make the description of the property sufficient. The indictment here stated the number of sacks of feed, and the weight of each, together with the value of each and the value of the entire ten sacks, with the name of the owner. This identified the property. It would be impractical, and in some cases impossible, to specify the different types of grain, or other elements, and the percentage of each, composing the dairy feed. It might be added as a practical observation that Barnes himself had no difficulty in determining the nature and identity of the property. In a confession he said he stole “dairy feed.” We think the contention under consideration is not well taken.
As to the first contention, in his confession Barnes said that he took possession of the feed at the barn of Mr. Glaze Anderson and hauled it one sack at a time in a wheelbarrow to the side of a public road a short distance away, at which point he unloaded his cargo as he made the trips to and from the barn to the road, and that, after piling the ten sacks beside the road, he engaged a man by the name of Keyes to haul it away in Keyes’ truck to the home of Lon Hatten, to whom he sold and delivered the feed. Transporting the sacks by means of the wheelbarrow was one continuous, consecutive transaction — at least, the jury had the right to so conclude. And all of the sacks were shortly transported by Barnes to his purchaser by one and the same trip. In Dodson v. State,
“Now, Mr. Anderson, I believe you had stated that the formula would make 1970 pounds of dairy feed. A. Yes, sir, that’s right. Q. Now what was the value of that 1970 pounds of dairy feed? A. I figure $3.50 per sack. Q. $3.50 per sack. All right, and the ten sacks of course would have been - - A. $35.00.”
It will be noted that neither of said two contentions, even though sustained, would have resulted in the dis
The county attorney, in his argument to the jury, said: “Mr. Anderson testified the value of the feed Avas being $3.50 a sack and that is not disputed.” Objection Avas made on the ground the last part of the statement Avas a comment upon the failure of Barnes to take the stand. The objection Avas overruled. Barnes then asked for a mistrial, AAdiich Avas denied. Barnes says this is ground for reversal and remand of the case.
In Lambert v. State,
Affirmed.
