Case Name: R. E. Tribble v. The State
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1877
Citations: 2 Tex. Ct. App. 424
Docket Number: 
Parties: R. E. Tribble v. The State.
Judges: 
Reporter: Texas Court of Appeals Reports
Volume: 2
Pages: 424–425

Head Matter:
R. E. Tribble v. The State.
Former Acquittal.—Being on trial in the county court for an aggravated assault and battery, the defendant filed, under oath, a special plea, alleging that the county attorney had filed against him in said court, a previous information for aggravated assault and battery, which had been duly tried by a jury, who had thereupon found defendant guilty of a simple assault, and assessed a fine against him therefor; that the aggravated assault and battery for which he had been so charged and tried was the identical act and offense charged in the information now on trial; that his conviction thereupon for a simple assault was legally an acquittal of the said charge of aggravated assault and battery, and barred and precluded this second prosecution and trial therefor. Held, good as a plea of former acquittal, which, if proved, constituted a defense against the information on trial.
Appeal from the County Court of Bell. Tried below before the Hon. E. Walker, County Judge.
The special plea set out the dates and particulars of the first information and trial, so as to identify the offense with that now on trial.
Harris & Alexander, for the appellant,
filed a very able and exhaustive argument.
George McCormick, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.

Opinion:
Winkler, J.
The court below erred in sustaining exceptions to the special plea of the defendant.
So far as the record discloses, the party went to trial on the information set out in the plea without exceptions to the information at any stage of the proceeding, either before or after trial, and as such it would have sustained a conviction for an aggravated assault.
The conviction of a simple assault, specially mentioned in the verdict rendered, was equivalent to an acquittal of any higher grade of the offense charged. At any rate, the plea set up an adjudication of the very matter charged in the present case, and which, if proved, would be an effectual bar to any further prosecution for the same offense. Other errors are assigned, but for this one alone the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.
Reversed and remanded.