Title: State v. Roessler

State: new-mexico

Issuer: New Mexico Supreme Court

Document:

266 P.2d 351 (1954) 58 N.M. 102 STATE v. ROESSLER. No. 5602. Supreme Court of New Mexico. January 29, 1954. Richard H. Robinson, Atty. Gen., Clyde C. McCulloh, Asst. Atty. Gen., Fred M. Standley, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellant. F. Gordon Shermack, Santa Fe, for appellee. FEDERICI, District Judge. A criminal information was filed against the defendant in the District Court in words and figures as follows: "Criminal Information "Bertrand B. Prince, District Attorney for the County of Santa Fe, New Mexico, accuses the defendant, Thomas Roessler, alias Tom Russell, alias Rocky Roessler, of the crime of contributing to the delinquency of a female under the age of 18 years, contrary to New Mexico Session Laws of 1943, Ch. 36, Sec. 1, and states that said criminal act occurred on or about the 9th day of April, 1952. the day of , 19 , in the County of Santa Fe State of New Mexico. Upon arraignment the State of New Mexico appeared by Bertrand B. Prince, District Attorney, and the defendant appeared in person and by his attorney Harry L. Bigbee, and the transcript discloses the following proceedings were then had: Thereupon defendant's counsel made a statement to the Court including the following statements: Thereafter the following conversation took place between the Court and defendant: Thereafter there followed some conversation between the Court and Mrs. Roessler pertaining to her feelings in the matter, and also pertaining to some other criminal action against her arising out of the same transaction, none of which matters are pertinent here. The court finally sentenced the defendant orally as follows: Almost two months after sentencing, the following motion was filed in the District Court, to-wit: The District Court sustained the motion and in so doing made the following finding: This cause is now before this court by virtue of an order of the District Court allowing the plaintiff, State of New Mexico, an appeal from the order and judgment of the District Court vacating the judgment and sentence and withdrawing the commitment of defendant. The propositions called upon by this appeal to be decided by this court may be stated as follows: 1. Does the information fail to charge an offense: 2. Is § 44-116, N.M.Statutes 1941 Annotated, § 1, Ch. 36, Laws of 1943, unconstitutional in that it is vague, indefinite and uncertain? Proposition 1-a is disposed of by our holding in the case of Ex parte Kelley, 57 N.M. 161, 256 P.2d 211, 214, where this Court held that an information charging an accused with statutory rape "was not fatally defective in failing to name the victim of the rape charged." Proposition 1-b is also substantially disposed of by the holding of this court in Ex parte Kelley, supra, and in State v. Shroyer, 49 N.M. 196, 160 P.2d 444. These cases hold that an indictment or information need not recite the particulars of the offense, it being sufficient that the accused shall have the right to demand the nature and the cause of the accusation, and the cited cases hold in effect that the accused being accorded the right to request a bill of particulars, under § 42-608, N.M.Statutes 1941 Annotated, is thereby amply protected. In the instant case no bill of particulars was requested, and that was a right which the defendant and his counsel had a right to waive, and which was waived by the entry of a plea of guilty without requesting any additional particularization of the charge prior to arraignment (although ample particularization was made in open court and prior to sentencing to the end that the defendant certainly knew the particulars for which he was being sentenced). In any event, however, a particularization of the accusation in the information was waived upon the entry of the plea of guilty upon arraignment, provided of course the information originally charged an offense under § 42-607, N.M.Statutes 1941 Annotated. (Emphasis ours.) Section 42-607, supra, provides as follows: Does the information in the instant case charge an offense within the meaning of the foregoing § 42-607? We believe it does for the following reasons: The offense is statutory. § 1 of Chapter 36 of the New Mexico Session Laws of 1943, being also § 44-116, N.M.Statutes 1941 Annotated, provides as follows: The title to the act reads as follows: The heading to the section as it appears in the 1941 Code published under statutory authority is headed in black type as follows: "Persons contributing to juvenile delinquency". In short it appears rather convincingly that this statutory offense has been given the statutory name generally of "Contributing to the Delinquency of a Person Under the Age of Eighteen (18) Years". The information charges the defendant "of the crime of contributing to the delinquency of a female under the age of eighteen years," and in so doing actually particularizes as to the sex of the victim, a particularization not necessarily prescribed by the statutory name of the offense or the context of the statute creating the offense. Consequently it is our view that an offense has been sufficiently charged under subdivision (a) of subsection (1) of § 42-607, supra, in that the information uses "the name given to the offense * * * by a statute." Further, and as an added basis for finding the information valid and sufficient, it will be noted that the accusation in the instant information refers to the section and chapter of the statute creating the offense charged, thereby invoking the provisions of subsection (2) of § 42-607, supra. And in this connection see State v. Ardovino, 55 N.M. 161, 228 P.2d 947, 949, where this writer in that opinion in finding that the information did not charge an offense conjectured, in the following language, that a different result might have been reached had the information in that case referred to the section of the statute creating the offense: See, also, State v. Sena, 54 N.M. 213, 219 P.2d 287, 289, where this court upheld the information filed under the identical statute involved here. Of course, in the Sena case the information did particularize by setting out that the contribution to delinquency of the minor was by "`selling alcoholic liquor to him.'" Obviously, the information was sufficient in the Sena case under subdivision (b) of subsection (1) of § 42-607, supra, and was probably sufficient even under the provisions of subdivision (a) of subsection (1) of said § 42-607. Suffice it to say that in the Sena case this court was not called upon to pass upon the sufficiency and validity of an information which we now find sufficient under the provisions of subdivision (a) of subsection (1) of § 42-607, supra, as supplemented by subsection (2) of said § 42-607. To recapitulate our conclusion under point 1(b) raised by this appeal, we restate that should further particularization have been desired by the defendant, or his counsel, in the instant case a bill of particulars timely demanded or requested would have properly called upon the trial court to pass on the question of further particularization. Apparently, neither the defendant nor his counsel deemed this necessary under the circumstances and submitted to a fair and open arraignment and sentencing. Our conclusion therefore is that the information in the instant case was valid and sufficient under the provisions of § 42-607, N.M.Statutes 1941 Annotated, and that the failure to particularize further was not a fatal defect in the information. Proposition (2) raised on this appeal calls upon this court to again pass on the question of whether or not the statute here involved creating the offense of contributing to juvenile delinquency, hereinabove referred to, is unconstitutional as being vague, indefinite and uncertain. This court in State v. McKinley, 53 N.M. 106, 202 P.2d 964, held that the statute here in question was not invalid as being so vague, indefinite and uncertain as to be incapable of interpretation and enforcement. This ruling has been in force in this state since 1949, *356 and has apparently been followed by the trial courts, and no doubt many prosecutions have been had under this act since our prior ruling, and undoubtedly a number of persons have been accused, found guilty and served time, and may now be serving time under the penalty provisions of this statute, and there is nothing that impels us at this late date to reverse our former holding; consequently we reaffirm the constitutionality of said § 44-116, supra, on the grounds again urged in the case at bar. It follows from what has been said that the trial court erred in vacating the judgment and sentence of the court, and in vacating the commitment theretofore issued by the clerk of the court, and the cause is remanded to the District Court in Santa Fe County with directions to set aside said order of vacation and reinstate the original judgment and sentence of the court and commitment issued by the clerk. It is so ordered. McGHEE, C.J., and COMPTON, LUJAN, and SEYMOUR, JJ., concur.