Hightower v. State

165 S.W. 184
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 7, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 165 S.W. 184 (Hightower v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hightower v. State, 165 S.W. 184 (Tex. 1914).

Opinions

PRENDERGAST, P. J.

From a conviction for pursuing the business or occupation of selling intoxicating liquors in prohibition territory, appellant prosecutes this appeal.

At an election held in 1906, the law prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors in Na-cogdoches county was carried and then duly put in force. The indictment was returned and filed February 16, 1912, alleging that the offense was committed on or 'about January 14, 1911. It charged the offense in compliance with the statute, and alleged eight specific sales to persons named. The state’s evidence was sufficient to show that at least five of these specific sales were made, and, in addition, at least one other' which was not specifically alleged. Appellant testified, denying each of these sales, and said she had made no sale to any person. The evidence showed that she had many times been prosecuted for mating individual sales in violation of the prohibition law. Among other things, she testified that all classes of people, during the night and all night long, came to her house,, ashed for whisky, and it seems that this had' been kept up for some time. - ■

The indictment, in the first part, alleged: “In the name and by the authority of the state of Texas, the grand jurors for the county of Nacogdoches, and state of Texas, duly organized as such [at the-term, A. D'. 191—] of the district court of said county upon their oaths in said court present, etc.” Before the trial began, upon the motion of the county attorney, the court permitted the indictment to be amended by inserting “February” and “2,” making it read, where inclosed in the brackets, as above, “February term, A. D. 1912.” The-court committed no error in permitting this amendment. The allegation was surplusage and a mere matter of form. O. O. P. arts. 598, 599; Grayson v. State, 35 Tex. Cr. R. 629, 34 S. W. 961; Murphy v; State, 36 Tex. Cr. R. 24, 35 S. W. 174; Osborne v. State, 24 Tex. App. 398, 6 S. W. 536.

Pursuing the- business or occupation of selling intoxicating liquors in prohibition territory is an entirely separate and distinct offense from making individual sales. Under an indictment and trial for the offense of pursuing the business and occupation, it is necessary to allege, as the statute requires, at least two specific sales to persons named. That an accused has been tried and either acquitted or convicted of said individual sales would present no question of former jeopardy when such specific sales are alleged in this offense. The court did not, therefore, err in holding that the former trial for these 'specific individual sales was not former jeopardy, and excluding evidence of an acquittal or conviction either on the same grounds. Robinson v.. State, 147 S. W. 245; Wilson v. State, 154 S. W. 574; and- other cases unnecessary to cite.

As qualified by the court, no error is shown in refusing to permit appellant to ask Jude McKnight whether he was swearing the truth in giving his testimony in the county court trial, nor in admitting the testimony of Jeff Mora as to the identity of appellant as the person from whom he bought whisky.

Nor did the court err in refusing to permit appellant to prove that the state’s witness Wallace Jones had been convicted for selling intoxicating liquor; such conviction hot having been a felony, and, as has been many times held by this court, a misdemeanor conviction for selling intoxicating liquor in prohibition territory is not an offense involving moral turpitude. Branch’s Grim. Law, § 868, p. 551.

Nor does appellant’s bilí, as qualified by the judge, that asking appellant on cross-examination by the state, and requiring her to answer how she accounted for so many people coming to her to buy whisky show any error. This was proper cross-examination. .

There are some complaints by. appellant of separate and distinct paragraphs of the court’s charge; also of the refusal of the court to give certain special charges requested by her. None of these present any error.

The charge of the court must be considered as a whole, when some paragraph or portion thereof only is criticized.

The criticism of different paragraphs of the court’s charge, in effect, is that thereby the court, permitted her conviction, if the jury believed the state had shown as many as two separate and distinct sales, and that the. court’s charge does not define the offense. The charge of the court, taken as a whole, [187]*187is not subject to any of these objections. The charge gives the substance in full of the statute in substantially, if not literally, the language thereof to the effect that, if any person shall engage in or pursue the occupation or business of selling intoxicating liquors in prohibition territory, he shall be punished, etc., “and the law further provides that in order to constitute the engaging in or ■pursuing the occupation or business of selling intoxicating liquors within the meaning of the law, it shall be necessary for the state to prove that the defendant made at least as many as two sales,” etc. Then, in submitting the case to the jury for a finding, required- that they shall believe beyond a reasonable doubt, not only that appellant engaged in and pursued the said occupation and business, etc., but did make two or more sales of such liquor before they could find her guilty. Both requisites of the statute are plainly charged and both are required to be found before a conviction can be had. This is fully in accord with the many decisions of this court. It is unnecessary to cite them all. See Clark v. State, 61 Tex. Cr. R. 600, 136 S. W. 260; Dickson v. State, 146 S. W. 918; Wilson v. State, 154 S. W. 576.

In addition to the court’s charge, this special charge of appellant was also given: “You are instructed that you cannot convict the defendant in this case for pursuing the business and occupation of selling intoxicating liquors, as charged in the indictment, because she permitted certain parties to leave intoxicating liquors upon her -premises. Before you can find her guilty under this indictment, you must find from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, the following two propositions: First, that she actually made sales of intoxicating liquors in pursuit of the business and occupation of selling intoxicating liquors; second, and that she was engaged in the business and occupation of selling intoxicating liquors. 'And, if you fail to so find the facts to be, or if you fail to find that both facts have been established beyond a reasonable doubt, you will return a verdict of not guilty, and this notwithstanding you believe beyond a reasonable doubt that one of said essential elements has been proven.”

One of the specific sales charged in the indictment was to Wallace Jones.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Rodriguez v. State
899 S.W.2d 658 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1995)
Phillips v. State
615 S.W.2d 756 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1981)
Brasfield v. State
600 S.W.2d 288 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1980)
Travelers Insurance Company v. Jordan
339 S.W.2d 235 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1960)
Rivera v. State
255 S.W.2d 219 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1953)
Bartos v. United States District Court
19 F.2d 722 (Eighth Circuit, 1927)
In Re Bartos
13 F.2d 138 (D. Nebraska, 1926)
Fisher v. State
197 S.W. 189 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1917)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
165 S.W. 184, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hightower-v-state-texcrimapp-1914.