Title: Kirk v. State

State: indiana

Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court

Document:

250 Ind. 307 (1968)
235 N.E.2d 684
KIRK
v.
STATE OF INDIANA.
No. 31,049.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
Filed April 19, 1968.
C. Kent Carter, of Bloomington, for appellant.
John J. Dillon, Attorney General, William F. Thompson and Rex P. Killian, Deputy Attorneys General, for appellee.
JACKSON, J.
Appellant was charged by indictment in two counts filed in the Monroe Circuit Court, with the crimes of, *308 Count 1, Grand Larceny, and Count 2, Obtaining Property Under False Pretense. Trial was had by jury which returned a verdict of guilty of the charge of Grand Larceny and not guilty of the crime of Obtaining Property under False Pretenses. Following the conviction appellant filed her Motion for a New Trial which was overruled by the court, and appellant thereupon perfected her appeal herein.
The indictment herein, Count 1 for Grand Larceny, omitting formal parts thereof and signature, reads in pertinent part as follows:
The verdict of the jury reads as follows:
Thereafter pre-sentence investigation was filed and on the 3rd day of December, 1964, the court rendered judgment on the verdict of the jury as follows:
Appellant's Motion for a New Trial in pertinent part reads as follows:
Appellant's Assignment of Errors in pertinent part reads as follows:
There are two questions presented in this appeal. The first is a material variance existing in the indictment and the proof offered in support of the indictment. The indictment charged the appellant with grand larceny in the sum of Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000.00) "in lawful United States currency". The evidence adduced at the trial showed that the appellant did not receive Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000.00) in lawful United States currency from one H. Elwood Stevenson, but instead received from him a savings account check drawn on Workingmen's Federal Savings and Loan Association, dated February 23, 1963, made payable to Elwood Stevenson and endorsed by him and by the appellant. Said check was introduced in evidence by the State as State's Exhibit No. 7.
The second question is with reference to the intent. The indictment charges that the appellant, "did then and there unlawfully, feloniously, take, steal and carry away the personal property of Elwood Stevenson...." The question of intent in the case at bar is one of the controlling factors.
The law in this state concerning grand larceny, as it refers to the description of money or property as charged in the indictment as being unlawfully or feloniously carried away may be stated as follows:
In Hamilton v. State (1877), 60 Ind. 193, the appellant had been indicted for grand larceny, was tried and found guilty. The indictment was for larceny "of the lawful money of the United States". Evidence of the larceny of notes issued by a national bank in this instance was held insufficient. The *311 court in reversing the conviction said: "The State, having alleged that the money stolen was of the money of the United States, was bound to prove the allegation as made".
In Morgan v. State (1878), 61 Ind. 447, the court, in reversing the conviction held that where an indictment for larceny contains a particular though unnecessary description of the property alleged to have been stolen, by way of identifying it, the evidence must to warrant a conviction establish such description.
Referring again to the second question herein this Court has often said:
In the case at bar the State put on the stand, as their witness, H. Elwood Stevenson who testified he had loaned appellant various sums and had never asked that they be repaid nor had he asked for the interest thereon. After reviewing the evidence herein we must conclude there is not sufficient substantial evidence of probative value to sustain the verdict of the jury and the judgment of the court.
The cause is reversed and remanded with instructions to sustain appellant's motion for a new trial.
Lewis, C.J. and Hunter and Mote, JJ. concur; Arterburn, J. concurs in result.
NOTE.  Reported in 235 N.E.2d 684.