State v. Lowry

212 P. 768, 29 Wyo. 267, 1923 Wyo. LEXIS 8
Wyoming Supreme Court·Decided February 27, 1923·No. No. 1018·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

PotteR, Chief Justice.

The appellant was convicted of an offense under the first State Prohibition Act, which went into effect on June 30, 1919 (Laws 1919, Ch. 25,) and sentenced to pay a fine of $500 and the costs of the prosecution. It was charged in the information that on the 30th day of October, 1919, in the county of Platte, the said George Lowry ‘ ‘ did then and there unlawfully and maliciously sell and furnish to one S. A. Knight intoxicating liquor, to-wit, one pint of what is commonly known as whiskey, without having procured from the State Prohibition Commissioner a permit to sell or dispose of intoxicating liquors for purposes not excepted by law.” It is specified as error: (1) that the information does not state facts sufficient to constitute an offense punishable under the laws of Wyoming; (2) that the verdict is contrary to law; (3) that the judgment is contrary to law; (4) that the court erred in admitting evidence of other sales of intoxicating liquor by defendant than the sale charged in the information; (5) that the court erred in permitting the witness S. A. Knight, over the objection of defendant, to testify that he had bought whisky from defendant after June 30th on other occasions than that stated in the information.

The first witness for the prosecution was S. A. Knight, the person named in the information as the one to whom it is alleged intoxicating liquor was sold and whose name is endorsed upon the information as the prosecuting witness. He testified that the appellant, who will hereafter be referred to either as defendant or appellant, conducted a soft drink business in the town of Guernsey in said Platte County, occupying successively between July 1 and November 1 of said year two places for that business, “one known as the Log Cabin and the other Peterson’s Place” or “the old Peterson Saloon building;” first occupying the Log Cabin and leaving there for the other place some time in August. Keplying to a question whether between July 1 and November 1, or October 31, 1919, he purchased any [272] whisky from the defendant, he testified that he did “on the 30th and 31st of October, two specific cases * * * a pint each time,” paying $6.00 for each pint so purchased; He was then asked whether on any.other occasion during the period of time mentioned he had bought whisky from the defendant, and an objection to the question was overruled but the ruling was not excepted to. He answered that he had, and in reply to subsequent questions he testified that while the defendant was in the Log Cabin he had bought from him whisky by the drink and by the pint on various occasions. That he had also bought whisky by the drink in the Peterson saloon building, the defendant serving him on each of the different occasions; that no one was present when he bought by the bottle, but others had been present when he bought by the drink, some of whom he named.

Other witnesses were called by the prosecution who testified, without objection, to having bought whisky, either by the drink or by the pint, from the defendant in one or the other of the two places of business which had been occupied by him as aforesaid. Thomas Carr, one of said witnesses, testified that on several occasions during the period mentioned he had purchased whisky by the drink and also by the pint. One Welton, another of said witnesses, testified that he had been in defendant’s “present” place of business twice, and was acquainted with his former place of business, “the Log Cabin.” Asked whether or not at any time after June 30 and before November 1 he had bought any whisky from the defendant, he answered that he had not, but in reply to later questions he testified that he had been with “a couple of friends” of his, one of whom bought whisky from the defendant by the glass, in the latter's living quarters “in the Log Cabin;” that he saw no money change hands and it might be possible that his friend might have been given the liquor as a guest; and that he also had a drink of whisky at that time but without paying for it — the inference being that it was obtained for him by his friend, though he stated that it was handed to him by the defendant. An[273] other witness, G. A. Daugherty, was called for the purpose also of showing an occasion when liquor was sold or furnished'in defendant’s said place of business, but his testimony, which will be more particularly referred to hereafter, did not show a sale or furnishing of liquor by defendant to anyone.

It was then shown by the testimony of A. S. Roach, who had been sheriff of the county during 1919, that upon a search on November 1, 1919, of the Peterson saloon building occupied by the defendant and an old ice-house in the rear of that building, he had found a bottle partly filled with whisky and an empty bottle back of the bar in the business part of the main building and in the ice-house two cases of “White House Club” whisky, as well as several empty bottles in the basement and in the back room, and that the defendant admitted that the whisky belonged to him. The defendant testified that all of such whisky had been bought by him for his own individual use before the prohibition law had gone into effect, that he had not sold or given any of it to S. A. Knight or to any of the other persons who had testified in the case, and since June 30, 1919, had not sold or given away any whisky at either place mentioned in the testimony as occupied by him.

The purpose of introducing the above mentioned testimony to show a sale or sales of whisky other than the sale charged in the information is not disclosed by the record, and does not appear to have been stated upon the trial. We may suppose it was offered on the theory that it would come within one or more of the exceptions to the general rule that evidence to show or that may tend to show the commission by the accused of another offense is irrelevant and inadmissible, which rule applies to a prosecution for a violation of a liquor law (16 C. J. 605,) but no cautionary instruction was given limiting the effect of such testimony. On the contrary the only instruction given stating the essential ingredient of the offense charged to be established by proof seems to have been based upon the testimony to the effect [274] that defendant had sold whisky on other occasions to the witness Knight, at least, and in a different manner from that charged in the information. For it was not limited to the necessity of finding that the defendant had sold or furnished one pint of whisky to Knight, or to either occasion in October testified to by him, but permitted a conviction upon the jury’s finding merely that he had sold whisky to said Knight, which might mean by the drink or glass as well as by the bottle or pint, and on any of the various occasions testified about by that witness.

By the first instruction the charge as contained in the information was correctly stated, and further that the defendant’s plea of not guilty “puts in issue every essential ingredient of the offense charged, and casts upon the state the burden of proving the defendant’s guilt thereof beyond a reasonable doubt. ’ ’ But by the second instruction the first essential ingredient of the offense charged was declared to be “that the defendant had sold intoxicating liquor, to-wit: whisky, to S. A. Knight, in Platte County, Wyoming,” after June 30, 1919, and prior to the filing of the information. And that was not modified by any other instruction given in the case.

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

State v. Lowry, 212 P. 768, 29 Wyo. 267, 1923 Wyo. LEXIS 8 (Wyo. 1923).

212 P. 768 (State v. Lowry) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

State v. Vines
54 P.2d 826 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1936)
Tobin v. State
255 P. 788 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1927)
State v. Cesar
232 P. 1109 (Montana Supreme Court, 1925)