Opinion
40433.
DECIDED NOVEMBER 13, 1963.
Larceny of automobile. Barrow Superior Court. Before Judge Russell.
Mark Dunahoo, for plaintiff in error.
Alfred A. Quillian, Solicitor General, contra.
1. A ground of a motion for new trial which neither sets forth nor refers to the evidence objected to is incomplete and will not be considered.
2. A question not presented and ruled upon in the trial court cannot be raised for the first time in this court.
3. The defendant's character was not put in issue by a charge in the following language: "Participation in the commission of the same criminal act, and in the execution of a common criminal intent, is necessary to render one criminal in a legal sense, an accomplice of another criminal."
4. The evidence adduced on the trial of the case authorized the conviction.
DECIDED NOVEMBER 13, 1963.
The defendant along with five others was indicted for larceny of an automobile. The defendant elected to sever and was tried separately. A verdict of guilty was returned and thereafter the trial court overruled the defendant's amended motion for new trial. It is to this judgment that he now excepts and assigns error.
1. Special ground 4 of the amended motion for new trial assigns error on the admission of testimony of a purported co-conspirator. This ground neither sets forth the evidence objected to nor refers to the same by page number as permitted by the Act of 1957 (Ga. L. 1957, pp. 224, 232; Code Ann. § 6-901). Accordingly, this special ground is too incomplete to be considered. See Toler v. State, 213 Ga. 12 (4) ( 96 S.E.2d 593); Aldridge v. Whaley, 218 Ga. 611, 615 ( 130 S.E.2d 124).
2. Special grounds 5, 6 and 7 assign error on excerpts from the court's charge as being unsound as abstract principles of law. While it is argued in the brief that such excerpts are not authorized by the evidence, no such contention is made in the motion for new trial; and, since a question cannot be raised for the first time in this court, see Fuller v. Self, 107 Ga. App. 664, 665 ( 131 S.E.2d 214), and cases there cited, the sole question for decision is the question presented by the special grounds of the amended motion for new trial, to wit: Were the excerpts from the charge complained of correct as abstract principles of law?
The excerpt from the charge following generally the language of Code §§ 38-409 and 38-420, complained of in special ground 5, was not incorrect as an abstract principle of law.
Special ground 6 complains of an excerpt from the charge which defined "conspiracy," and special ground 7 complains of an excerpt of the charge on how "conspiracy" may be proved. Neither of these excerpts was incorrect as an abstract principle of law.
3. Special ground 8 complains of an excerpt from the charge as placing the character of the defendant in issue. The court instructed the jury: "Participation in the commission of the same criminal act, and in the execution of a common criminal intent, is necessary to render one criminal in a legal sense, an accomplice of another criminal." (Italics ours). This charge, without the italicized word has often been used by the appellate courts as a correct statement of the law. Springer v. State, 102 Ga. 447, 451 ( 30 S.E. 971); Mosley v. State, 65 Ga. App. 800 ( 16 S.E.2d 504); Perryman v. State, 63 Ga. App. 819, 822 ( 12 S.E.2d 388). And in Montford v. State, 144 Ga. 582, 584 ( 87 S.E. 797), it was approved as an instruction given the jury. The addition of the word criminal in nowise changes the meaning of the sentence since with or without such word the sentence has the identical meaning. The trial court was charging a correct principle of law and such charge did not place the defendant's character in issue.
4. The evidence adduced on the trial, while not without conflict, authorized the conviction, and the judgment overruling the amended motion for new trial was not error for any reason assigned.
Judgment affirmed. Frankum and Jordan, JJ., concur.