JENKINS v. STATE

1. — Complaint — Alternative Averments.

Complaint, charging that defendant carried "on or about" his person knuckles made of metal and a hard substance, to-wit: shot, held fatally defective as charging the offense in the alternative instead of the conjunctive.

Where the lowest fine prescribed under the statute, prohibiting the carrying of arms, was $100.00, a fine of $10.00, for unlawfully carrying knuckles, was error.

GRAVES, Judge.

Appellant was charged with unlawfully carrying knuckles, and, under a plea of guilty before the court, was fined the sum of $10.00.

The complaint is fatally defective in that it charges that appellant did carry on or about his person knuckles made of metal and a hard substance, to-wit: shot, thus charging this offense in the alternative instead of the conjunctive. See Branch's Penal Code, p. 556, Sec. 967, and authorities there cited.

We are also unable to see how a fine of $10.00 could be assessed under a charge of unlawfully carrying arms, the lowest fine mentioned in Art. 483, P. C., denouncing such offense, being $100.00.

On account of the defect in the complaint, this cause is reversed and the prosecution ordered dismissed.