101 S.E. 627 | N.C. | 1919
The defendant was indicted for the larceny of lumber of the value of $200, the property of A. T. Dorsey. All of the evidence was not sent up. From the little that is here, we gather that the lumber was stacked or piled in different places. The record discloses "that the lumber (alleged to have been) stolen, was piled up in the barn, in the house, under the porch, under the crib shed, and neither was locked, and was near the road, where Dorsey's hands passed and repassed, and where it could easily be seen by anybody passing that way."
Defendant was convicted, and appealed. We must assume that there was evidence of the defendant's guilt, as there is no point made as to there being none, the only assignments of error being to the charge of the court and the refusal to arrest judgment, except those that are merely formal.
1. If the judge stated the evidence to the jury incorrectly, the defendant should have called his attention to it, so that it could be corrected at the time. Failing to do so, waives any objection to it, as a similar omission waives the misstatement of a contention. S. v. Spencer,
2. The court did not err in the instruction that if the defendant had fully committed the crime, what he did afterwards was no defense and no condonement of it in law.
3. The property was sufficiently described in the indictment under our statute, Rev. 3254. The rule is that "where raw material has been changed to some extent by labor, it may nevertheless still be called by the name of the material, provided it has not been wrought into a new substance with a specific name to designate it. When, however, the product has a specific or distinguishing name, that name must be used to describe it." 25 Cyc. 76. "The description in an indictment must be in the common and ordinary acceptation of property, and with certainty sufficient to enable the jury to say that the article proved to be stolen is the same, and to enable the court to see that it is the subject of larceny, and also to protect the *869
defendant in any subsequent prosecution for the same offense." S.v. Campbell,
We are of the opinion that, within the principle prevailing in such cases, the description of the article stolen was sufficient. It was laid in the name generally applied to it in the trade, and in common parlance. It does not appear to have gone beyond the process of manufacture, and to have been worked into any new form which has a specific designation or name. The defendant could not have been misled or disconcerted in his defense, or put to any disadvantage. If he desired more particular information, he should have applied for a bill of particulars. Rev. 3244; S. v. Brady,
Chief Justice Ruffin, in S. v. Moses,
The Court, in S. v. Smith,
The defendant must have understood very clearly the charge in the bill of indictment, and certainly was not unprepared to defend himself against it, and we should obey the statute and not permit what Lord Hale and Chief Justice Ruffin called an "unseemly nicety" to defeat the ends of justice.S. v. Moses, supra, at pp. 468, 469; S. v. Ratliff,
We are unable to find any error in the case or record.
No error.
Cited: S. v. Everhardt,