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48 La. Ann. 1024

State v. Robertson

Supreme Court of Louisiana

Decided May 18, 1896

Supreme Court of Louisiana · decided 1896-05-18

<p>An indictment which, in one count, charges burglary and larceny is bad, and thereunder the accused can not be legally convicted of larceny.</p>

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently January 1927

3 state decisions

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““That they could find the three following verdicts, viz.: (1) Guilty as charged; (2) guilty of larceny; (3) not guilty.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including State v. Fradella

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1896-05-18

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*1025The opinion of the court was delivered by

Watkins, J.

¶2The defendant was indicted for the perpetration of the crime of burglary and larceny, committed in a dwelling house, and having been convicted of petit larceny and sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor in the State Penitentiary for a period of ■eighteen months, he prosecutes this appeal, relying upon a single bill of exception taken to the charge of the trial judge.

¶3Among other things, the judge stated in his charge to the jury that they could find the three following verdicts, viz.: (1) Guilty as charged; (2) Guilty of larceny; (3) Not guilty; and the defendant, by counsel, excepted that under the indictment he could not be convicted of larceny, and his charge was erroneous.

¶4There is but one count in the indictment, and it charges that the defendant did, in the night-time, with force and arms, a certain dwelling house feloniously and burglariously break and enter, with the intent to steal the goods and chattels of one Rogers Wadden, then and there situated; and that he did take, steal and carry away the goods and chattels described as being situated therein.

¶5The statute declares that “whoever, with intent to kill, rob, steal, etc., shall, in the night-time, break and enter a dwelling house, on conviction shall be imprisoned at hard labor not exceeding fourteen years.” Revised Statutes, Sec. 851.

¶6Other sections of the Statutes ars quite similar; but neither of them denounces the crime of larceny, or makes any provision for its punishment; this is covered by a different section altogether. Revised Statutes, See. 812.

¶7Neither are the two crimes of the same generic class.

¶8In State vs. Alfred Ford, 30 An. 311, the question here presented was examined and decided in fa mr of the defendant, the court saying:

“The offence of burglary is quite distinct from that of larceny. They belong to different families of crime, and it would be an ■enlargement of the rule, not warranted by authority or precedent, to hold good a conviction for one of them upon an indictment for the other.”

¶9In that ease, as in this, defendant was indicted for burglary and larceny in one count.

¶10We are of opinion that the defendant’s bill of exceptions was well taken, and that the verdict and sentence must be set-aside.

¶11*1026It is therefore ordered and decreed that the verdict of the jury, and the sentence thereon pronounced, be annulled and set aside; and it is further ordered and decreed that the accused be set at liberty and his bond canceled.

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