State v. Montgomery

117 S.E. 870, 94 W. Va. 153, 1923 W. Va. LEXIS 127
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedMay 29, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 117 S.E. 870 (State v. Montgomery) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Montgomery, 117 S.E. 870, 94 W. Va. 153, 1923 W. Va. LEXIS 127 (W. Va. 1923).

Opinion

Lively, Judge:

On March 4, 1922, the circuit court, upon a verdict of guilty as charged in the warrant, sentenced defendant to confinement in jail for 90 days and to pay a fine of $300, to which judgment and sentence this writ was awarded.

The warrant charged defendant with unlawfully having in his possession a quantity of moonshine liquor, in January, 1922, contrary to law. The evidence on which defendant was convicted was obtained by virtue of a search and seizure [156]*156warrant issued prior to the warrant on which be was convicted, and the case turns upon the legality of the issuance and execution of the search warrant. Upon the affidavit of R. S. Irons, made before M. M. Smith, a justice of the peace, on January 28, 1922, a search and seizure warrant was issued and placed in the hands of Elwin Moran,, a member of the department of public safety,' commonly known as the “state police,” directing him to forthwith enter that building and premisés occupied by defendant as a barber shop in the village of Ellamore in Randolph county, and search and seize all liquors, etc., found therein; and to arrest all parties and persons fpund in said premises and bring them before him to be further dealt with according to law. This officer, accompanied by Moore and Wooddell, members of the state police, proceeded to the building designated in the search warrant, which contained the barber shop in one room at the end of the building, and searched the shop but found no intoxicating liquors therein. Defendant was found and was present while the shop was being searched. Some of the officers asked him where he roomed, and he informed them that his room was in the building, and upon the expression of a' desire by the officers to search his room he took them to it, opened the door and a search was made therein. In his trunk, which defendant opened with his key, the officers found eleven pints of moonshine whisky, a sample of which was introduced in evidence. The dwelling- was occupied by Columbus Moore, who rented the room in which the liquor was found, to defendant, which he occupied and where he slept. The liquor, together with defendant, was takén before the justice where the warrant was issued on the 29th of January, the prisoner placed in custody and the trial of the case- was continued until February 1st, when defendant appeared in person and by counsel, craved oyer of the complaint for the search warrant and the warrant, which was granted; filed a plea to the jurisdiction of the justicei to try the case, the state having elected to try under the statute, and also tendered and filed another plea stating in substance that there was no evidence against him except that secured by the officers on the search warrant which was [157]*157alleged to be illegal and unlawful and that the search was made in violation of the constitutional right of defendant to be secure from unreasonable search and seizure. The plea averred that the search warrant was void: (1) because it was not directed to the sheriff or a constable; (2) because it was directed to any member of the department of public safety and was executed by a member of that department; (3) because the warrant was sworn out upon information under oath contrary to the constitution; (4) that the complaint did not show that Irons, who made it, had probable cause upon which to base it; (5) because Irons was not actually sworn to the complaint; (6) that Irons had no personal knowledge of any offense committed by defendant, and therefore no probable cause existed for the search warrant; (7) because the warrant was a subterfuge in order to obtain evidence; (8-9-10-11) because of indefinite description of the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized; and (12) because of. other errors and irregularities appearing upon the face of the complaint and search warrant.

The plea was rejected, the case tried and a fine imposed upon the prisoner of $300 and he was sentenced to be confined in jail for 90 days, and to labor upon the public roads. An appeal was taken to the circuit court and tried on March 4th, with the result above indicated. On February 24th the defendant presented to the court his petition setting out the proceedings hereinbefore detailed and setting up the same grounds in varied form for his discharge which he had interposed by his plea in the trial before the justice, and alleging upon information and belief that Irons, who signed the complaint for the search warrant, was not sworn to the truth of the matters therein contained; and prayed therein that Irons, the prosecuting attorney, and the officers who arrested him be made parties to the petition and that the liquor wrongfully taken from him be returned; that the search' of petitioner’s premises and the seizure of his property be declared unlawful and wrongful and that the officers be prohibited from testifying against the petitioner upon the appeal. The petition was demurred to by Irons [158]*158and the officers, and the- demurrer sustained. Petitioner tendered an amendment setting out in effect that the officers not only searched the barber shop but entered the home and apartments of Columbus Moore in the same building and searched his (defendant’s) private room in the home of Moore and charging that under the search warrant they had no right to search his private room in Moore’s home, and for that reason the search of the room and seizure of the liquor was illegal and void. A demurrer was sustained to this amendment. Defendant pleaded not guilty, and the case went to trial. 'At the conclusion of the evidence .of each of the officers (they being the only witnesses examined) defendant moved to strike out the evidence of each because the search warrant was void. The court refused to sustain these motions. The complaint for the search and seizure and the warrant for search and seizure,' with the return thereon, were introduced in evidence; also a sample of the moonshine liquor seized. No evidence was offered by defendant.

Logically, the first assignment of error which should be considered is whether the justice had jurisdiction to try on the warrant. For, if the justice did not have jurisdiction, and could not try the case, .the circuit court had no jurisdiction upon appeal. Richmond v. Henderson, 48 W. Va. 389. Under sec. 32 of chap. 32A of the Code, which is the chapter on intoxicating liquors, a justice of the peace is given concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit or other courts having criminal jurisdiction, for the trial of first offenses arising under the act. The state may elect to have trial before the justice in such cases, or require only a preliminary hearing to determine whether the accused shall be held to the grand jury; and the prisoner, in case the state elects to try, is entitled to a jury. This provision was contained in sec. 7 of the Acts of 1915; but it is pointed out that the offense charged in the warrant, namely, unlawfully having in his possession a quantity of moonshine liquor contrary to law, was not an offense until it was made so in 1921, and therefore the justice did not have jurisdiction under said section 32. The jurisdiction of a justice to try and deter[159]*159mine criminal offenses is purely statutory. But does not the offense created by the act of 1921, which, is an amendment to the act of 1915, bring it within the jurisdiction of a justice? Where there has been an amendment and reenactment of a former statute, the rule of construction is that the amendment becomes a part of the original act in respect to things thereafter done, as if it had been a part of the original act.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
117 S.E. 870, 94 W. Va. 153, 1923 W. Va. LEXIS 127, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-montgomery-wva-1923.