Guetling v. State

153 N.E. 765, 198 Ind. 718, 1926 Ind. LEXIS 191
Indiana Supreme Court·Decided October 26, 1926·No. No. 24,599, 24,600.·Published·Cited by 26 cases

Opinion

Myers, C. J.

By affidavit, each of these appellants was charged, and although separately tried, each was convicted of inducing another to commit a felony by the use of a still, in violation of §1, Acts 1923 p. 107. The rulings on their motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment are separately assigned as error. These appellants separately brought to this court a record presenting practically the same questions supported by like arguments and authorities. For the purposes of an opinion and disposition in this court, the cases are consolidated.

It appears from each of the records at bar that on October 11 or 12, 1923, one Leonard Mack erected a tent in a cornfield some seven or eight miles west of Owensville in Gibson county, and therein set up two distilling outfits, one of twenty-five-gallon and the other of thirty-gallon capacity, for the manufacture of whisky. He had there materials sufficient to make sixteen barrels of mash, which he prepared the next day and allowed to ferment seven or eight days when he began to “cook it off.” On the twenty-second day of the same month, at about 2:30 in the afternoon, the sheriff of Gibson county and four other persons visited the tent where they found Mack, the distilling appa *721 ratus, and thirty or thirty-five gallons of whisky. The sheriff arrested Mack, took possession of and moved away the whisky, a portion of the apparatus, and emptied the barrels containing the mash. Mack was taken to Princetqn and placed in jail, and did not afterwards return to the tent. Later in the day, about 6:30 p.m., the sheriff, his deputy and four other persons returned to the neighborhood of the tent where they, with one or two other persons, remained until about 8 or 8:30 o’clock in the evening, when both appellants, Joe in the lead, appeared, each carrying a sack containing one hundred pounds of corn sugar, an article said to be used in the manufacture of whisky. In the car on the side of the road were four 100-pound sacks of sugar and four oil stove wicks. The sheriff arrested each of these appellants and obtained from them at that time statements or admissions concerning their connection with the unlawful enterprise. Two of the persons who accompanied the sheriff testified that they understood Elbert to admit to the sheriff that he had made one other trip, and, in the opinion of one of these witnesses, two other trips to the tent and returned with twenty gallons of whisky. Four other witnesses, also bystanders, and the sheriff, testified that they heard no such admissions from Elbert. On the contrary, all of the testimony on the subject of Elbert’s admissions, other than the two, was to the effect that he insisted that he had never been at the tent before; had no former knowledge of the camp, and that he was there only at the solicitation of his brother to take a ride with him into the country, and that his only participation or connection with the making of the liquor was the carrying of a sack of sugar that evening from his brother’s automobile down to the tent at his brother’s request. There is no other evidence in any manner connecting Elbert *722 with Mack or the whisky making. During the talk between the sheriff and the Guetlings, Joe, in response to questions by the sheriff, admitted that he had made two trips from Evansville, his home, to the tent, and on each trip he had obtained twenty gallons of liquor for which he had paid Mack $5 a gallon. One witness testified that about two or three weeks before Mack was arrested, he saw Joe and Mack on the road in a big touring car, Mack driving, about a mile from where the tent was located and driving in that direction.

Mack pleaded guilty to the charge of manufacturing whisky and was a witness for the state at the trial of each of these appellants. He testified that he transferred the entire distilling outfit, materials for making whisky, and the tent in a truck to the place where the same was found. Prior to that time, he had purchased a Hudson touring car, and being unable to make the payments as they become due, and while he was engaged in this whisky activity, the seller of the car brought him and Joe Guetling together to whom he sold his equity in the car for 600 pounds of sugar to be delivered to him at his tent, and $200, of which $150 was paid in cash; that he was not acquainted with Elbert and never saw him prior to October 22, 1923, at about 10:30 o’clock at night, when he was brought to jail and locked up with the witness. There was evidence also tending to show that Elbert was a steady and industrious automobile mechanic. Joe did not testify at either trial, but his brother Elbert testified in his own defense covering his activities during the months of September and October, and explaining how he came to be at the tent on the evening of his arrest. He was twenty-five years old, and his story was reasonable and consistent with unintentional wrongdoing.

The affidavit, among other things, charged that on or about October 22, 1923, and before the alleged fel *723 ony was committed, these appellants “did then and there unlawfully and feloniously counsel, encourage, hire and command the said Leonard Mack to do and commit the said felony.” This affidavit is based on §224, Acts 1905 p. 584, §2028 Burns 1926, which provides that “Every person who shall aid or abet in the commission of a felony, or who shall counsel, encourage, hire, command, or otherwise procure a felony to be committed, may be charged by indictment or affidavit,” etc. Hence, to warrant a conviction of either of these appellants, it was incumbent upon the state to introduce evidence to prove, or from which the jury might reasonably infer, that these appellants, for the purpose of procuring Mack to commit the particular felony alleged, did at least one of the acts mentioned in the statute and stated in the affidavit. Thompson v. State (1920), 189 Ind. 182, 125 N. E. 641.

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Guetling v. State, 153 N.E. 765, 198 Ind. 718, 1926 Ind. LEXIS 191 (Ind. 1926).

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