Seale v. State

39 S.W.2d 58, 118 Tex. Crim. 324, 1931 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 690
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 25, 1931
DocketNo. 14069.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 39 S.W.2d 58 (Seale 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
Seale v. State, 39 S.W.2d 58, 118 Tex. Crim. 324, 1931 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 690 (Tex. 1931).

Opinions

CHRISTIAN, Judge.

The offense is possession of intoxicating liquor for the purpose of sale; the punishment, confinement in the penitentiary for two years.

Operating under a search warrant, officers searched a garage and found therein approximately 500 gallons of whisky. A false end had been built to the garage, making a secret compartment in the back thereof, in which the whisky in question was concealed. It was uncontroverted that appellant built the garage. The officers testified that appellant stated to them at the time they presented the search warrant to him that he was running a filling station. He further stated to the officers, according to their testimony, that they might go ahead and search, as there was no liquor in the place.

Testifying for himself, appellant said that he had leased the premises to his brother on November 28, 1928, for a consideration of $500, $250 of which was paid in cash, the remainder to be paid when he (appellant) returned from Mineral Wells; that upon making the trade he left for Mineral Wells, where he was operated on; that he remained in Mineral Wells for three weeks; that he had just returned from Mineral Wells and had only been in the filling station about thirty minutes when the officers made the raid; that he had gone to the filling station for the purpose of receiving the remainder of his lease money; that his brother had left him in charge while he went for the money; that he knew nothing of the presence of the whisky in the garage; that he had not built the false end in the garage where the whisky was found.

In rebuttal, the state introduced a witness who had been selling and delivering gasoline and oil to appellant. He testified that he sold appellant gasoline shortly prior to the raid and that he had also sold him gasoline and oil two or three days before the raid; He also said that appellant had given him some whisky a few days before the raid.

Appellant objected to the testimony of the officers touching the result of the search on the ground that the garage was not included in the description of the premises set forth in the affidavit for the search warrant. We think the objection was properly overruled. We quote from the affidavit as follows:

“Before me, the undersigned authority, on this day personally appeared Ed. Tharp and C. T. Heller, each known to me to be credible persons, and who, each upon their oaths state that they have reasons to believe and do believe that the hereinafter described place, house, building, residence and premises, which is being used and operated by one Homer *326 Seale and employees is being used and occupied by them (or him) as a place for the unlawful manufacture of intoxicating liquor in violation of and contrary to the laws of the State of Texas; that said building, place, residence, and premises is described as follows, to-wit: that a certain filling station, building or house, located and situated on the public road leading from the town of Matador, Texas, to the town of Paducah, Texas, and being on the north side and adjacent to said public road known as Lee Highway or Highway No. 28 in Motley County, Texas, and about 9.4 miles east of the town of Matador, Texas, and about 200 yards east of a creek known as Tepee Creek. Said building, place and premises in Motley County, Texas.”

There seems to be no doubt from the record that the premises in question consisted of a filling station and garage. The garage was approximately 25 feet from the filling station, and a fence enclosed the buildings on three sides. According to the state’s witnesses, appellant stated that he was running the filling station. The opinion is expressed that the description in the affidavit included the garage.

The further contention is made that the description set forth in the search warrant failed to follow that embraced in the affidavit. It was recited in the search warrant that the affiants had made 'affidavit that they had reason to believe and did believe that “a certain place, building and premises, which is being used and occupied by one Homer Seale and employees is being used by them as a place for the unlawful manufacture of intoxicating liquor, and for the unlawful sale of intoxicating liquor, in violation of and contrary to the laws of the State of Texas.” Thereafter it is recited in the search warrant that said place, building and premises is situated 9.4 miles east of Matador, Motley County, Texas, on the Matador-Paducah Highway, said highway being known as Lee Highway or Highway No. 28, about 200 yards east of a creek known as Tepee Creek in Motley County, Texas. It is further stated that the property in question is situated on the north side of and adjacent to said Lee Highway. We think the description in the search warrant did not materially vary from that set forth in the affidavit.

A further objection to the testimony of the officers was that the affidavit failed to set forth facts and circumstances sufficient to constitute probable cause. Touching probable cause, it is stated that the reason for believing that the building, place and premises of the appellant were being used for the unlawful manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor was as follows:

“By the report of others and what looks to me as liquor being delivered to parties as I passed there.”

On the former appeal of this case it was held that the affidavit sufficiently manifested on its face the existence of probable cause for making the search. See Seale v. State, 26 S. W. (2d) 275. We are not led to *327 believe that we were in error in our former holding. Rozner v. State, 109 Texas Crim. Rep., 127, 3 S. W. (2d) 441. The statement in the affidavit is equivalent to an averment that it had been reported to the affiants by others that appellant was manufacturing and selling intoxicating liquor on the premises in question.

In submitting appellant’s affirmative defense, the court instructed the jury, in paragraph 7 of the charge, as follows:

“You are instructed that if you find and believe from the evidence that Walter Seale had leased the filling station and was in possession of the intoxicating liquor found in the filling station, if any was so found, and that defendant was not in possession of same, or if you have a reasonable doubt as to whether or not such were the facts, then you will find the defendant not guilty.”

Further, in paragraph 8 of the charge, the jury were instructed as follows:

“You are instructed that even though you find that defendant was in possession of the garage and that whisky was found in same, still such possession would not alone authorize you to find defendant guilty, and if you find from the evidence that defendant had no knowledge of the presence of whisky, if any, in the garage, or if you have a reasonable doubt as to defendant’s knowledge of the presence of whisky, if any, in the garage, then you will find the defendant not guilty.”

In paragraph 3 of the charge, the court instructed the jury that the word “possession” means the exercise of actual control, care and management of the property in .question. Appellant objected to paragraph 7 of the charge on the ground that it was a limitation upon his rights, in that before the jury would be justified in acquitting him they must find that Walter Seale leased the filling station and was in possession of the whisky.

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Bluebook (online)
39 S.W.2d 58, 118 Tex. Crim. 324, 1931 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 690, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/seale-v-state-texcrimapp-1931.