Case ID: tex_25/html/0758-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Bell, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The State v. P. Murrah.
    An indictment which alleges that the defendant made the assault complained of “ in a court of justice, then and there being in session,” sufficiently charges an aggravated assault under the Penal Code, without averring that the court was then lawfully in session, or specifying what court it was in which the offence was committed, or that it was a court of any particular grade.
    Appeal from Harrison. Tried below before the Hon. C. A. Frazer.
    
      The indictment charged that the defendant, the appellant, “ on the fifteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in said county of Harrison, and in a court of justice then and there being in session, unlawfully and willfully did commit an aggravated assault in and upon Gilchrist McKay, and then and there did strike,” &c. The defendant filed a motion to set aside the indictment, because it did not set forth either of the grounds enumerated in the statute which constitute a.n aggravated assault and battery; that the court in which the offence was alleged to have been committed was not shown to be one of competent jurisdiction ; and did not allege that the court was in session at the time of the commission of the alleged offence.
    The motion was sustained, and the State appealed from the decision.
    Attorney-General, for the State.
   Bell, J.

We are of opinion that the court below erred in sustaining the exceptions to the indictment. The indictment alleges all that is necessary to be alleged in an indictment for an aggravated assault and battery. Article 488 of the Penal Code says that an assault or battery becomes aggravated when committed in a court of justice. This indictment charges that the assault was unlawfully and willfully committed in a court of justice then and there being in session.” We think this is sufficient. It is not necessary to allege that the court was lawfully in session, or to specify what court it was in. which the offence was committed, or that it was a court of any particular grade.

Reversed and remanded.