Case Name: Jesus Hernandez v. The State
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1885-11-18
Citations: 19 Tex. Ct. App. 408
Docket Number: No. 2002
Parties: Jesus Hernandez v. The State.
Judges: 
Reporter: Texas Court of Appeals Reports
Volume: 19
Pages: 408–409

Head Matter:
[No. 2002.]
Jesus Hernandez v. The State.
Jurisdiction of the District Courts of Kinney and "Val Verde Counties.— The oSense charged in the indictment under which this prosecution and conviction were had was committed, if at all, in the town of Del Bio while that town was comprised within the territorial limits of Kinney county. Subsequent to the presentment of the indictment, but before the trial was had, the county of Val Verde was erected out of that part of the territory of Kinney county which comprised the town of Del Bio, which said county of Val Verde was fully organized when the trial was had. Held, that the erection and organization of Val Verde county divested the district court of Kinney county of jurisdiction over the case, and vested such jurisdiction in the district court of Val Verde county; to which court the case should have been transferred.
Appeal from the District Court of Kinney. Tried below before the Hon. T. M. Paschal.
The conviction in this case was for an assault with intent to murder one John Holland, in Kinney county, Texas, on the 2d day of July, 1883. A term of two years in the penitentiary was the penalty assessed against the appellant.
Ho brief for the appellant.
J. H. Burts, Assistant Attorney-General, for the State.

Opinion:
White, Presiding Judge.
On the 2d day of July, 1883, when the assault with intent to murder which is charged in the indictment in this case was committed, Del Kio, the town or place in which it was committed, was as then defined within the territorial limits of Kinney county. By act approved 24th of March, 1884, the nineteenth legislature passed an"act entitled "An act to create the county of Yal Yerde, and to provide for its organization." (Gen'l laws 19th leg., pp. 48, 49.) That portion of Kinney county which was taken to form Yal Yerde county comprised within its limits the town of Del Rio, where the offense charged was committed. Yal Yerde county had become fully organized before this case was tried, to wit, 18th September, 1885, in the district court of Kinney county.
The question is, Did the district court of Kinney county have jurisdiction to try the case, the indictment having been found in Kinney county before the county of Yal Yerde was created?
Mr. Bishop says: "By the common law crimes are local, to be prosecuted in the county of their commission; only in such county can the grand jury inquire of them. Even where a county is divided, a criminal act done before the division is to be prosecuted in the particular new county in which is the place of the offense. The offense is against the State; the trial in the new county." (7 Bish. Crim. Proc., § 49. See, also, Nelson v. The State, 1 Texas Ct. App., 41; Weller v. The State, 16 Texas Ct. App., 206.)
After the organization of Yal Yerde county the cause should have been transferred to the district court of that county for trial. Because the district court of Iiinney county had lost its jurisdiction of the case in the creation of Yal Yerde county, judgment is reversed and cause remanded that it may be transferred to Yal Yerde county for a new trial.
Reversed and remanded.
[Opinion delivered November 18, 1885.]