Case ID: sw_276/html/0711-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "BATTIMORJi), J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

SCROGGINS v. STATE.
    (No. 9790.)
    (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
    Oct. 21, 1925.)
    Indictment an'd information <&wkey;8l(l) —■ Complaint and information, referring to accused as the said defendant, held not indefinite or uncertain.
    Complaint and information, using “the said defendant” in referring to accused after naming him previously, held. not to be indefinite, uncertain, or insufficient description of accused, under Pen. Code 1911, art. 25.
    Appeal from Tarrant County Court, at Law; P. W. Seward, Judge.
    Alfred Scroggins was convicted on plea of guilty of misdemeanor theft, and, from an order overruling motion in arrest of judgment, he appeals.
    Affirmed.
    W. B. Ammerman and Harvey P. Shead, both of Port Worth, for appellant.
    Sam D. Stinson, State’s Atty., of Green-ville, and Nat Gentry, Jr., Asst. State’s Atty., of Tyler, for the State.
   BATTIMORJi), J.

Appellant pleaded guilty in county court at law No. 1 of Tarrant county to misdemeanor theft, and his punishment was fixed at one year in the county jail.

Appellant made a motion in arrest of judgment, based on the proposition that the complaint and information were insufficient and void, because same charged that “Alfred Scroggins did then and there fraudulently take from-a suit of clothes of the value of-with the intent then and there to fraudulently appropriate same to the use and benefit of him, tbe said, defendant”; it being insisted that the use of the word “defendant” in this connection and at this stage of the proceeding was premature, indefinite, uncertain, and not sufficiently descriptive of the accused.

Article 25 of our Penal Code sufficiently answers this contention in that it states that the word “accused” is intended to refer to any person who is held to answer for any offense at any stage of the proceedings, and further says that the word “defendant” is used in the same sense. There is no statement of facts or bill of exceptions in 'the record.

The judgment will be affirmed. 
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