11 Iowa 414 | Iowa | 1860
The court did not err in overruling the defendant’s motion to set aside the indictment. It does not charge therein two separate and distinct public offenses, one of maiming and the other of disfiguring, as is claimed by the counsel of defendant.
The statute under which the defendant was indicted (section 2678 of the Code,) provides that if any person maliciously kill, maim or disfigure any horse, cattle, &c. The countin the indictment charges that defendant did maliciously “ malm and disfigure,” &c. Where in a statute there are different grades of the same offense set forth, or degrees of the injuries stated, the indictment may charge all or cither, at the election of the pleader; and the proof need only cover so much of the allegation as constitutes a complete offense. Bish. Cr. L. section 48; State of Iowa v. Cooster, 10 Iowa, 453.
The defendant is charged with having disfigured an ox by shooting it. The disfiguring may have been very'slight indeed, yet the injury great; and to hold that because the injury to the appearance of the animal was not permanent, the offense is not indictable under the statute, would give more latitude in the construction of this statute than the courts would be authorized in doing.
Whéther the injury was so great as to disfigure the animal, was a question for the jury, from the evidence, to determine.
Judgment affirmed.