Jentho v. State

1921 OK CR 28, 200 P. 251, 19 Okla. Crim. 434, 1921 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 74
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 12, 1921
DocketNo. A-3490.
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 1921 OK CR 28 (Jentho v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jentho v. State, 1921 OK CR 28, 200 P. 251, 19 Okla. Crim. 434, 1921 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 74 (Okla. Ct. App. 1921).

Opinion

MATSON, J.

This action was begun in the county court of Bryan county, Okla., by filing therein separate informations against each of the above-named plaintiffs in error, hereinafter designated defendants, charging each of them with the offense of unlawful conveyance of intoxicating liquor.

On the trial of. the cause the three eases by agreement were consolidated and tried as one case; the evidence as to each offense being practically identical.

On September 26, 1918, the consolidated case was tried to a jury, and a verdict of guilty returned as to each defend *436 ant. On the 2nd day of October, 1918, the court rendered a judgment of conviction against each defendant, and assessed a punishment of a fine of $500 and 60 days’ imprig^ypent in the county jail in conformity with the respective veraicts. Before the rendition of judgment, each defendant filed a motion for a new trial, which was by the court overruled, and after rendition of judgment an appeal was prayed to this court. An examination of the record discloses that the appeal is properly perfected.

The evidence introduced by the state discloses that these three defendants were traveling, on the night of the 9th of January, 1918, in three separate automobiles loaded with whisky, and came on to the bridge crossing Red river on the Jefferson Highway leading from Texas into Oklahoma near the south boundary of Bryan county, Okla., that the automobiles progressed as far as the gate on the bridge across the river, which gate is but a short distance south of the north bank of Red river and about 600 feet north of the south bank of said river; that defendants Huddart and Murphy were arrested on the bridge at said gate, but that defendant Jentho backed his car off the bridge and escaped into the state of Texas, where he was afterwards arrested and brought back into Oklahoma, and the parties were after-wards placed in the county jail in the city of Durant.

It is first contended that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the verdict of the jury. In support of this assignment of error, it is contended that no proof of the venue of the action was ever made.

The evidence on the part of the state discloses that these parties conveyed, in separate automobiles, large quantities of whisky on a public highway leading from Texas into Oklahoma, from a point on said highway located on the south bank of Red river along said highway and across a bridge on *437 said highway over Bed river to a point on said bridge about he south bank of Bed river, into what is

Courts will take judicial notice of the boundary lines of the state and of the counties of the state. Reed v. Territory, 1 Okla. Cr. 481, 98 Pac. 583, 129 Am. St. Rep. 861; Johnson v. State, 5 Okla. Cr. 1, 112 Pac. 760; Spencer v. State, 5 Okla. Cr. 7, 113 Pac. 224; 15 R. C. L. p. 1081, § 19.

The south boundary of the state of Oklahoma is at the south bank of Bed river. United States v. Texas, 162 U. S. 1, 16 Sup. Ct. 725, 40 L. Ed. 867.

Also it has been held that? the venue in a criminal' cause does not have to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.- Brunson v. State, 4 Okla. Cr. 467, 111 Pac. 988; Fuller v. State, 2 Okla. Cr. 86, 99 Pac. 1098.

We deem the venue of this action to have been sufficiently established to be in Bryan county, Okla.

It is also contended that the evidence is insufficient because it tends to show that the conveyance was from one place on the bridge to another place on the same bridge, which would constitute no offense; and in support of this assertion the case of De Graff v. State, 2 Okla. Cr. 519, 103 Pac. 538, is relied upon. In. that case it is held that to convey intoxicating liquor from one room in a private residence to another room in the same residence is not the conveyance from one place within the state to another place therein, within the meaning of the prohibitory liquor laws.

The conveyance from one point in a private residence to another point therein is entirely different from the conveyance from one point upon a public highway to another point upon the same highway, separated by space and capable of distinct proof as to location. There is no analogy between the facts *438 in the case of De Graff v. State and the facts in this case. The official reports of this court are full of convictions summed where the proof disclosed a conveyance of intoxicatiiig. p^or from one point to another point along the same public highway.

It is also contended that the trial court erred in permitting the witness Collins to testify as to what constituted the boundary line between Oklahoma and Texas.

This witness was permitted to testify, over objection and exception, that a signboard had stood on the south bank of Red river for many years marked, ‘ ‘ Texas line and Indian Territory,” but that this sign had been washed away by a flood about seven years before the trial of the cause. The purpose «of this testimony was to locate the south bank of Red River, and to show that defendants had passed a certain distance north of the point where the sigp. had stood.

We do not consider the admission of this testimony prejudicial to defendants in this case. Independent of the location of this particular signboard, the witness Collins testified that he had lived in that neighborhood all his life; that he was a justice of the peace; and that at the time of the arrest of Huddart and Murphy they were about 600 feet north of the south bank of the Red river. The testimony of Collins is also supported by the testimony of the witness Cordell and the witness Roberts, and the uncontradicted evidence is to the effect that these defendants had proceeded along the highway distances ranging from 300 to 600 feet north of the south bank of Red river.

There being no controversy as to the fact that defendants had proceeded north of the south bank of Red river in conveying this whisky, we see no merit in the assignment that the witness Collins was permitted to testify as to the previous location of a signboard on the south bank of said river.

*439 It is also contended that the trial court erred in over-. ruliu^\the motion to quash the information. In support of thit ^v,fiintion it is said:

“When these motions were filed the informations had never been verified by any person who had knowledge of the facts, and after the filing of these motions, and after the same was presented, the court permitted the county attorney, over the objections and exceptions of the defendants, to amend all of the informations by erasing a portion thereof, and writing in other portions. Also the county attorney was permitted to have the informations reverified by a person who claims to be cognizant of the facts. This, in our judgment, constitutes error. ”

The motion to quash the information was based on two grounds: (1) That the information is not verified as required by law; and (2) the information is insufficient to constitute a cause of action against defendant or to charge any offense against the laws of the state of Oklahoma.

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State v. Weis
216 N.W. 863 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1927)
State v. Risty
213 N.W. 952 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1927)
State v. Redmond
237 P. 486 (Montana Supreme Court, 1925)
Thomas v. State
1924 OK CR 158 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1924)
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1921 OK CR 80 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1921)
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1921 OK CR 69 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1921)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1921 OK CR 28, 200 P. 251, 19 Okla. Crim. 434, 1921 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jentho-v-state-oklacrimapp-1921.