Henry Dennis v. State Texas

Appellant was charged in a two count indictment with committing the offenses of theft and theft by receiving stolen property. See V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Sections 31.03 (a), (b) (1) and 31.03 (a), (b) (2). The jury acquitted him of the former offense and convicted him of the latter offense. The trial court assessed punishment at twelve years confinement in the penitentiary. The Houston Fourteenth Court of Appeals reversed the conviction and ordered the indictment dismissed. See Dennis v. State, 629 S.W.2d 816 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th] 1982). The Houston court held that in light of this Courts decisions of Shaddox v. State, 594 S.W.2d 69 (Tex.Cr.App.1980), and Morgan v. State, 571 S.W.2d 333 (Tex.Cr.App.1978), see also Beasley v. State, 599 S.W.2d 620 (Tex.Cr.App.1980), the omission in the indictment of the statutory phrase, "the property is stolen," rendered the indictment fundamentally defective and void as it failed to state an offense pursuant to the involved statute. See Sec. 31.03 (a) (b) (2), supra. We granted the States petition for discretionary review to make the determination whether the above decisions of this Court, and in turn the decision of the Houston Court of Appeals, which relied thereon, were correctly decided. We will reverse the decision of the court of appeals, and reaffirm the above decisions of this Court to the extent they are not in conflict with this opinion.