Sattler v. People

Citations

• 59 Ill. 68

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal law—return of indictment into open court. Before a party can be legally tried on an indictment, it must appear from the record, that the indictment was returned by the Grand Jury into open court. Such fact not appearing in the record, a motion in arrest of judgment should be • allowed.</p> <p>2. The minutes of the judge are no part of the record, and although (hey show the indictment to have been so returned, that does not have the force or effect of a record.</p> <p>3. Malicious mischief—wliat constitutes. Upon the trial of a party on an indictment for malicious mischief, it appeared there was a controversy between the prosecutors and the defendant, in regard to the possession of a certain lot of ground, the defendant being in the actual possession. Upon the prosecutors attempting to run a division fence across the lot, the defendant took up the posts and tore off the boards, while the fence was in process of erection, and forbade them from making the fence, protesting they had no right to do so, and that he was paying rent for the whole of the premises: Held, an instruction offered by the defendant, that if the jury believed, from the evidence, he was in possession of the premises and paying rent, they should find him not guilty, should have been given. The statute in regard to malicious mischief, (R. S. Oh. 30,) does not apply to cases of this kind, where opposition is made by a claimant of premises of -which he is in actual possession, to the erection of a fence across the same without his consent.</p> <p>4. Venue—in criminal cases, must he proved. The failure, in a criminal case, to prove the county in which the offense was committed, is fatal to a conviction.</p>