71 So. 734 | La. | 1916
The appellant was convicted of retailing intoxicating liquor without a license, and was sentenced to pay a fine of $305 and costs and to serve six months imprisonment in the parish jail, and, in event of his failure to pay the fine, to serve an additional term of 12 months in jail. He relies upon two bills of exception for a reversal of the verdict and sentence.
The purpose of requiring the prosecuting officer to inform the accused person of the exact date of the alleged crime, if he demands that information, is twofold: First, to enable him to prepare his defense; and, second, to prevent another prosecution for the same offense. The furnishing of a bill of particulars therefore might cause a grave injustice if the prosecuting officer were permitted, over the defendant’s objection, to prove that the crime was committed on another date than that stated in the bill of particulars. In the case before us, however, the defendant did not urge any objection to the introduction of the evidence when it was offered. He was informed with particularity of the transaction which the prosecuting officer intended to prove against him. The bill of particulars identified the sale by stating the kind and quantity of the liquor sold, the price paid, and the place óf the sale with precision. It is not, and cannot be, contended that the transaction proven was not the same transaction referred to in the bill of particulars. The only complaint is that the defendant was convicted of a crime committed on the 21st of December, in a prosecution for the commission of that particular crime on the 22d of December. Our opinion is that the defendant’s failure to object to the introduction of the evidence, when it was offered, of the commission of the crime on another date than that stated
in the bill of particulars, was a waiver of any complaint on that score. See State v. Stover, 111 La. 92, 35 South. 405; State v. Doucet, 136 La. 181, 66 South. 772 ; State v. Gremillion, 137 La. 291, 68 South. 615. The common-law doctrine of aider by verdict is recognized in our jurisprudence. See Marr’s Criminal Jurisprudence, p. 821, § 476.
The conviction and sentence appealed from are affirmed.