Opinion
No. 1000.
Decided May 20th, 1896.
Complaint as the Basis for an Information.
Under Article 467, Code Crim. Proc., a complaint by some credible person, charging a defendant with an offense, is a prerequisite to, and must be filed with, the information; and where a record on appeal shows that there was no complaint, upon which the information is based, the prosecution will be dismissed.
APPEAL from the County Court of Nueces. Tried below before Hon. W.B. HOPKINS, County Judge.
Appeal from a conviction for unlawfully carrying a pistol; penalty, a fine of $50.
No statement necessary.
[No briefs for either party have come to the hands of the reporter.]
Mann Trice, Assistant Attorney-General, for the State.
Appellant was convicted under an information charging him with unlawfully carrying on and about his person a pistol. The record does not contain a complaint. The complaint is a prerequisite to an information. The statue provides: "An information shall not be presented by the District or County Attorney, until oath has been made by some credible person charging a defendant with the offense. The oath shall be reduced to writing and filed with the information." Code Crim. Proc., 1895, Art. 467. In the language of Judge Sherwood (Supreme Court of Missouri): "The information must be bottomed on a complaint." As the case is thus submitted, the record is a correct transcript of the papers and proceedings in the court below. The judgment is reversed, and the prosecution ordered dismissed.
Reversed and Dismissed.