Court Opinion

ID: 9793587
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:50:20.3355+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:06:10.908302
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in reversing and remanding, but I do not agree that the trial court was justified in excluding testimony which was offered to prove the identity of the items of personal property allegedly taken, or that objections to the information were not waived.
If defendant were not charged with any offense, I.C.R. 12(b)(2) provides that such objection can be raised at any time. The courts are wholly without jurisdiction to proceed against a person who is not charged with a public offense. However, as the majority notes, and correctly so, the defendant was being prosecuted for grand larceny, which in Idaho is a criminal offense.
Since an offense was charged, if additional specificity was desired, it was available to defendant under the provisions of the Idaho Criminal Rules. Any objection to the prosecutor’s failure in not listing in detail the items allegedly taken was waived by not being raised prior to trial. I.C.R. 12(b)(2). In State v. Segovia, 93 Idaho 594, 599, 468 P.2d 660, 665 (1970), the Court held:
Appellant, by an assignment of error, also contends that the information fails to meet the requirements of I.C. §§ 19-1409 and 19-1411. I.C. § 19-1409 re*554quires that an information must contain a statement of “the acts constituting the offense in ordinary and concise language, and in such manner as to enable a person of common understanding to know what is intended.” Under I.C. § 19-1703, the failure of an information to conform to the requirements of I.C. §§ 19-1409 and 19-1411 is a ground for a demurrer, and under I.C. § 19-1711, the sufficiency of an information must be challenged in this manner. Failure to demur constitutes a waiver of any objection to the information on these grounds. . . . The record fails to disclose any demurrer to the information, and therefore, this assignment of error is without merit.1
In State v. Pruett, 91 Idaho 537, 543, 428 P.2d 43, 49 (1967), the Court held:
Procedural rules applicable in district court clearly distinguish the objection an indictment (complaint) does not state facts sufficient to constitute a public offense from the objection an indictment (complaint) does not fully apprise the defendant of the particular conduct which constituted the offense for which he was charged. This latter objection must be raised by demurrer before trial or it is waived. The objection cannot be raised by motion in arrest of judgment after trial as was attempted in the case at bar under the guise of an objection that the complaint did not state a public offense. I.C. §§ 19-1711, 19-1703, 19-1409-1411. The complaint adequately states a public offense; objection, therefore, must have been taken by demurrer. It was not so raised in the trial court. (Emphasis in original).
The majority notes two reasons for requiring a specific information. The first is to enable the defendant to adequately prepare his defense. Yet the majority states that “[djefendant cannot legitimately contend that he was surprised to his substantial prejudice by the absence in the information of specific descriptions of the property which he had allegedly stolen [or, presumably, by Brewer’s testimony on the stolen items]. Defendant undoubtedly knew what articles the information referred to.”
While it is true that the information alleged only that personal property was taken which was of a value of over $150.00, it is equally true, as the majority notes, that the individual items were identified on a search warrant, again identified in discovery proceedings, and listed again in the transcript of the preliminary hearing. The defendant was clearly apprised of the statute he had allegedly violated and that he was charged with having taken over $150.00 worth of personalty from Avery Brewer’s house at O’Mill, Idaho, on or about the 10th day of August, 1976. The defendant was also well advised of the items of property which the prosecution contended that he stole, and the decision not to move for an amendment to the information may have been made on the hope that the failure of the information in that respect might lead to the State’s failure to make out a case.
The second reason noted by the majority for demanding specificity is so that a defendant may prevent his subsequent prosecution for the same act. However, any concern that the State might later seek to prosecute the defendant again on a larceny charge involving the same items as here involved is both anticipatory and speculative. Should the State make any such attempt, it must be remembered the district court is a court of record and those records, as the majority opinion points out, amply illustrate that identification of the items of personalty allegedly taken by the defendant is well-documented. Such documentation on the record precludes a second prosecution for the same offense. This has been understood to be the rule in Idaho at least since 1913 when this Court quoted approvingly from the United States Supreme Court case of Cochran v. United States, 157 U.S. 286, 15 S.Ct. 628, 630, 39 L.Ed. 704 (1895):
*555“But the true test is, not whether it might possibly have been made more certain, but whether it contains every element of the offense intended to be charged, and sufficiently apprises the defendant of what he must be prepared to meet, and, in case any other proceedings are taken against him for a similar offense, whether the record shows with accuracy to what extent he may plead a former acquittal or conviction.”
State v. O'Neil, 24 Idaho 582, 592, 135 P. 60, 63 (1913) (emphasis supplied).
I.C. § 19-3702 states that departures from the form of pleadings proscribed by code do not make the pleadings invalid unless such departure tends to prejudice a defendant. Since defendant is unable to show prejudice here, I would hold the information sufficient and the testimony admissible.
The majority feels it is unnecessary to discuss the issue of the excluded testimony, but exercises its plenary power to decide the issue of whether leave to amend should have been granted. I submit that if the denial of leave to amend led to the granting of the motion to dismiss, the exclusion of the testimony led to both, and hence it is the underlying ruling the Court should pass upon. Since the testimony should have been admitted, the issues decided by the majority become unnecessary; under I.C. § 19-2804(6) the State was entitled to appeal the exclusion of the evidence.
For the above reasons, I concur in the result.
McFADDEN, J., concurs.

. “Although I.C.R. 12(a) abolishes demurrers, this Court has held that the state can appeal under I.C. § 19-2804(1) from motions to dismiss which raise defenses and objections which were formerly grounds for demurrer.” State v. Murphy, Idaho, 584 P.2d 1236 (1978) (citations omitted).