Green v. State

137 S.W. 126, 62 Tex. Crim. 345, 1911 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 271
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas·Decided April 19, 1911·No. No. 1124.·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

PRENDERGAST, Judge.

On November 25, 1910, appellant was indicted by the grand jury of Lubbock County for unlawfully selling intoxicating liquors therein to J. H. Moore, after a prohibition election had been held and carried in said county and the proper orders made so declaring, and the proper publication thereof. His penalty was fixed at one year in the penitentiary.

The evidence is clear, ample and sufficient to sustain the conviction.

Appellant made a motion to quash the indictment on two grounds. First, because the indictment charges that the order of the Commissioners Court absolutely prohibited the sale of intoxicating liquors in said county without negativing the exceptions in the statute wherein such liquors may be sold. This court has uniformly held that this is no ground for quashing the indictment; that the law itself makes *347 the exceptions and that even errors in reciting what the exceptions are will be treated as surplusage. And so the order for the prohibition election need not notice the exceptions. Barker v. State, 47 S. W. Rep., 980; Racer v. State, 73 S. W. Rep., 968; Chapman v. State, 37 Texas Crim. Rep., 167; Gilbert v. State, 32 Texas Crim. Rep., 596; Bruce v. State, 36 Texas Crim. Rep., 53; Ex parte Perkins, 34 Texas Crim. Rep., 429; Zollicoffer v. State, 38 S. W. Rep., 775; Loveless v. State, 49 S. W. Rep., 601; Shields v. State, 38 Texas Crim. Rep., 252; Frickie v. State, 39 Texas Crim., Rep., 255.

The other ground of the motion to quash is because it is claimed “the indictment does not show that the alleged sale of such liquor was made after said election had been declared in favor of prohibition and that the same at that time was in effect, nor does it show the place, the time nor date where said sale was made.” The indictment itself contradicts this ground of the motion. It charges that the appellant on or about October 6, 1910, in Lubbock County, Texas, did then and there unlawfully sell intoxicating liquors to J. H. Moore, after an election had been held, carried, properly ordered, declared, and published. It was not necessary for the indictment to •allege the place other than that it was in Lubbock County, Texas. This indictment particularly and fully follows the indictments which have been uniformly held by this court to be clearly and amply sufficient. Shilling v. State, 51 S. W. Rep., 240; Stephens v. State, 97 S. W. Rep., 483; Holloway v. State, 53 Texas Crim. Rep., 246; Cordona v. State, 111 S. W. Rep., 145; Starnes v. State, 52 Texas Crim. Rep., 403; Watson v. State, 52 Texas Crim. Rep., 551; Wesley v. State, 57 Texas Crim. Rep., 277, and cases therein cited. The court did not err in overruling appellant’s motion to quash.

Appellant made a motion for a continuance on account of the absence of two witnesses, Bill Stewart and J. O. Gentry. The court overruled the motion because the application did not show that due diligence was used by the appellant to procure the attendance of these witnesses and the evidence was not material. We deem it unnecessary to state the diligence shown by the application. We think it was insufficient, but if it had been sufficient, the testimony by the witnesses would not have been admissible. The motion says that by Stewart appellant expected to prove that at the time he was charged by the indictment with making the sale, Stewart was taking meals at appellant’s restaurant in Lubbock, Texas, within a short distance of where this offense was charged to have been committed; that on the date charged in the indictment and just before and just after, Stewart tried to procure whisky from him, both to buy and get it by gift from appellant; that the appellant refused to give him or sell him whisky at that time because, he stated, that he did not have any whisky and he refused to sell Stewart whisky or give him any, although Stewart was a drinking man, drank frequently and was his personal friend and offered to pay well for it. By said *348 Gentry he expected to prove that prior to the time he left Lubbock, which was in August, 1910, he attempted to buy whisky from appellant and appellant refused to sell it to him because he had none or because he did not have any for sale for anybody. Rone of this testimony, if. the witnesses had been' present, was admissible in this case for any purpose. Hence, the court did not err in overruling appellant’s motion for a continuance.' ¡

By bills of exception appellant saved a point, and assigns error in the following particulars: While the State’s witness, J. H. Moore, was on the stand and on cross-examination by appellant, he was asked if he was not an ex-saloon keeper and bartender, and if he did not run a saloon in Oklahoma. He answered these questions in the affirmative and that he knew what whisky was. Whereupon, appellant asked him if the whisky he claimed to have purchased from appellant was the same character of whisky he sold while he was in business. The object and purpose of said question, as stated by the bill, being to show whether or not the stuff he bought from appellant was intoxicating liquor and to show that it was not whisky and was not" intoxicating, and to show the character of the stuff or article, claiming that he expected to elicit from this witness a reply to the effect that the article he bought was not what you would call pure whisky, and was some sort of a mixture with probably some whisky in it, and that he could not say that it was an intoxicant because he never got drunk on it and never drank enough of it to know what the effect would be. This was objected to because the testimony was irrelevant and immaterial. The court, in allowing this bill, states that the examination of this witness by the State and defendant was thorough and the question was whether it was whisky, and not the kind he once sold himself. There was no error by the court in sustaining the objection to this expected testimony.

While this witness Moore was on the stand on cross-examination he was asked if he had not been indicted some years ago in Eastland County for murder and he answered that he had. The State on redirect examination was permitted to ask the witness what was done with said charge against him, to which he replied that he was acquitted of said charge. The court restricted the examination of the State and held that on this question the State could go no further than to elicit the answer of the witness that he was acquitted of the charge of murder. Appellant’s objection to the question and answer of the witness to the effect that he had been acquitted of the charge, was correctly overruled.

Again, while this State’s witness Moore was on the stand, complaint is made that on his redirect examination the State was permitted to ask these questions: “And it was then that he came in and asked you for that dollar afterwards?” “There in the presence of Mr. Cope?” “And you paid it to him?” (meaning the defendant). “You drank some of that whisky?” “And it looked like whisky?” *349 To each of these questions appellant objected because they were illegal and inadmissible and were leading. The witness answered all of the questions in the affirmative. The court qualified this bill by stating that the questions propounded were upon cross-examination of the witness upon matters brought out by the defendant, and besides, the questions merely summed up the testimony delivered by the witness in response to the defendant’s cross-examination.

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Green v. State, 137 S.W. 126, 62 Tex. Crim. 345, 1911 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 271 (Tex. 1911).

137 S.W. 126 (Green v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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