ARCH GIVENS, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, DEFENDANT IN ERROR
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Arch Givens was convicted of breaking and entering a store-house, but the evidence showed he broke into a gin-house instead. The Florida Supreme Court reversed, finding a fatal variance between the indictment's description of the building and the proof at trial.
The court held that a variance existed between the indictment and proof sufficient to require reversal and a new trial. The indictment must describe the building with sufficient clarity to protect the defendant and avoid doubt regarding the identity of the structure in future prosecutions. Here, the building was a gin-house as known to the community, not a store-house, making the variance fatal.
“the evidence must also substantially correspond with the description in the indictment, and that such articles may be described by the name by which they are generally known”
Establishes the fundamental rule that indictment descriptions must match evidence and that community-known names apply
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceGivens was indicted for breaking and entering a store-house belonging to Mrs. Pons with intent to commit a misdemeanor. The only witness testified tha…
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Carter, J.:
At the Fall term, 1897, of the Circuit Court of Baker county, the plaintiff in error was convicted upon an indictment charging him with breaking and entering á certain building, to-wit: a store-house, the property of one Mrs. Pons, with intent to commit a misdemeanor. The defendant moved the court to grant a new trial upon the ground, among others, that the verdict was Contrary to the law and evidence. This motion was overruled, and from the sentence imposed upon him he sued out this writ of error. Only one witness testified to .the character of the building alleged to have been broken and entered, and he designated it as “Mrs. Pons’ gin-house.” He stated that he was bookkeeper for Mrs.' Pons, and had been for many years; that she carried on a general merchandise business, and that she had a gin-house, store-house and dwelling, at Sanderson; that the store-house and gin-house were separate and distinct buildings, located about one hundred yards apart, and had been thus located and separated for many years; that he knew what a gin-house was, and also what a store-house was; that this building was generally known as a gin-house, while the store building was generally known as a store-house; that the breaking and entering occurred in February, 1897, and the ginning season generally began in October, and lasted until March. He testified further that cotton seed and toll corn were sometimes stored in the gin-house building; that at the time of the trial Mrs. Pons buggy was in there, and that she kept other things in the building as occasion required. He stated further that in the gin-house were located the gins, machinery, &c., necessary to carry on the business, and that Mrs. Pons also stored cotton, cotton seed, and sometimes corn and other things in the building, but that this building was known, called and designated by the people in the community as a gin-house, and the building containing the stock of general merchandise was known and called the store-house.
The court should have granted defendant’s motion for a new trial because of a variance between the allegation and proof descriptive of the building alleged to have been broken and entered. In Glover v. State, 22 Fla. 493, it is said that in an indictment for larceny the article charged to have been stolen should be sufficiently described so that there may be no doubt of its identity ; that this is required for the protection of the accused, so that in the event of a future prosecution for the same offense there may be no doubt of the identity of the article so alleged to have been stolen; that the evidence must also substantially correspond with the description in the indictment, and that such articles may be described by the name by which they are generally known. In that case the indictment described the article as a “gold watch,” and although according to the testimony of an expert the watch proven was not a gold watch, but what was known to the trade as a “filled case” watch, yet as it was known as and called by people generally, a gold watch, there was no variance, because it was impossible that the defendant could have been mistaken as to the article with the larceny of which he stood charged. The indictment in this case charged defendant with breaking and entering a building, to-wit: a store-house, but the evidence shows that the building which was broken and entered was not a storehouse, but a gin house. It is true that other articles disconnected from the ginning business were sometimes stored in the building, but that did not change the nature or character of the building which was primarily a gin-house — “a building where cotton is ginned” — nor make it a store-house — “a building for keeping goods of any kind, especially provisions —a magazine — a repository — a ware-house,” especially in view of the testimony that this building was generally known, called and designated by the people' in the community as. a gin-house, while the store building, one hundred yards away, was generally known and desig nated as a store-house., The indictment did not advise defendant to prepare to defend a charge of breaking and entering Mrs. Pons’ gin-house, nor could a former conviction or acquittal of the charge alleged in this indictment be pleaded in bar of another prosecution for breaking and entering “Mrs. Pons’ gin-house” with intent, & c.
The judgment is reversed, and a new trial granted.
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Citator
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Nesby Lawrence Gibbs v. Mayo, 81 So. 2d 739 (Fla. 1955)…rtilizers were in fact sold to the consignee.” (Emphasis supplied.) Coe-Mortimer Co. v. State, 81 Fla. 701, 88 So. 475, 476. Nor does proof of breaking and entering a gin house sustain a charge of breaking and entering a storehouse. Givens v. State, 40 Fla. 200, 23 So. 850. Likewise, where substituted words are broader in meaning than statutory language, so that the words used may or may not constitute a crime under a statute, no offense is stated. State v. Willis, 130 Tenn. 412, 170 S.W. 1032, where there…
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Fitzgerald v. State, 227 So. 2d 45 (Fla. 3d DCA 1969)…rendered the evidence insufficient, and the proof that something other than the alleged building was broken into constituted a fatal variance as held in Booker v. State, 93 Fla. 212, 111 So. 476. See also Wood v. State, 18 Fla. 967; Givins v. State, 40 Fla. 200, 23 So. 850; Dawalt v. State, Fla.App.1963, 156 So. 2d 769. The majority opinion excuses that variance on the ground that the defendant was apprised in advance, by a bill of particulars, that the evidence to be offered by the state at trial would n…
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Dawalt v. State, 156 So. 2d 769 (Fla. 3d DCA 1963)…ot to charge an offense under a statute which related to breaking and entering any “automobile, truck, trailer, semitrailer, or housecar.” Where a proper charge is laid with respect to breaking and entering a “building,” such as in Givins v. State, 40 Fla. 200, 23 So. 850, which charged breaking and entering a “building, to wit, a storehouse, the property of one Mrs. Pons,” it is essential that the proof support the charge. In the Givins case the proof showed breaking and entering Mrs. Pons’ ginhouse rath…
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- Glover v. State, 22 Fla. 493 (Fla. 1886)