Court Opinion

ID: 9560554
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:51:09.133626+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:12:13.435637
License: Public Domain

Hall, Presiding Judge,
concurring specially. The tractor was described in the indictment by make, color, serial number and ownership. The evidence at the trial showed that the tractor recovered from the accused was the same make, color and serial number as the indictment. However the invoice produced by the alleged owners contained the serial number C 238769 instead of the number C 238767 as stated in the indictment and found on the recovered tractor.
It is not necessary to plead a serial number in order to adequately describe the stolen automobile in a theft case. Gee v. State, 110 Ga. App. 439 (138 SE2d 700). This court has also held that a slight discrepancy in the serial number or the model year "does not result in a failure of proof when there is other identification sufficient to identify the vehicle described in the indictment and in the proof as being one and the same.” Reece v. State, 125 Ga. App. 49 (1) (186 SE2d 502); Herring v. State, 122 Ga. App. 730 (5) (178 SE2d 551). The question here is whether the evidence meets this test. In my opinion it does not. There was no testimony or other evidence that the tractor recovered from the defendant is the same tractor which was owned by and stolen from the Ponce de Leon Tractor Company.