Enson v. State

Citations

• 58 Fla. 37

Syllabus

<p>1. By statute, bank notes and money are made the subject of larceny; and, where the required degree of certainty cannot be used in specifying the pieces or denominations of coins stolen or the number and denomination of bank bills, it will be enough to state that a’'better description than that given is unknown to the prosecuting solicitor or to the grand jury as the case may be.</p> <p>2. In a prosecution for larceny, under the plea of not guilty, the allegation in the information of the prosecuting solicitor’s want of knowledge of a better description of the property stolen is traversable and the subject of inquiry, and an information false in this respect will not support a conviction.</p> <p>3. In a prosecution for larceny under the plea of not guilty; where the information alleges the prosecuting solicitor’s want of knowledge of a better description of the property stolen, the defendant may not be acquitted upon proof that the solicitor could easily have known a better description of the property stolen. The fact that the solicitor could easily have ascertained a better description of the property may be evidence that he knew the same, but it is not conclusive, and! cannot be made an absolute test of the sufficiency of the allegation that he did not know.</p> <p>4. In a prosecution for larceny, where the information alleges that a more particular description of the property is unknown to the prosecuting solicitor, and there was no evidence that the solicitor knew a more particular description cf the property alleged to have been stolen, the court properly refused to give an instruction predicating defendant’s right to an acquittal on the fact that the solicitor could easily have known a better description of the property than that given in the information.</p> <p>5. In a prosecution for larceny of bank bills and notes and silver specie, the information alleges that a more particular description than is given of the same is to the prosecuting solicitor unknow