Watson v. State

191 S.W. 546
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 10, 1917
DocketNo. 4330
StatusPublished

This text of 191 S.W. 546 (Watson 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
Watson v. State, 191 S.W. 546 (Tex. 1917).

Opinion

PRENDERGAST, J.

Appellant was convicted for pursuing the business of selling intoxicating liquor in Grayson county after the law prohibiting the sale thereof had been put in force in that county, and his punishment assessed at the lowest prescribed by law.

The indictment was in the approved form charging said offense and alleged a distinct sale by him to Floyd Abshire on November 24, 1915, and another to Elbert Abshire on January 2, 1916, and that on or about said date he made different and other sales to other persons, unknown to the grand jury, and during the months of November and December, 1915, and January, 1916, he made at least more than two sales of such liquor.

Deputy Sheriff Oscar Poff testified: That he knew where appellant lived November and December, 1915, and January, 1916. That he was at his place five or six times during those months. That he found 12 quarts of whisky there. Most of the time he had it in a trunk in the kitchen. There was some beer in the ice box. The whisky was Hill & Hill whisky. That he had seen a good many people going in and out of appellant’s place, both black and white, men and women, except that he saw no white women. That he took the whisky to the sheriff’s office.

Deputy Sheriff Boyd Craig testified: That he knew where appellant lived in Denison during said months, and that he investigated his place of business during those months some seven or eight times and found intoxicating liquor in the ice box every time he was there. That 10 or 11 quart bottles was the most he found there. It was Hill & Hill whisky. And that he found whisky every time he was down there. That he saw people stop in at appellant’s house, and that he did not remember of ever seeing Addie Watson, appellant’s sister, at his house.

Constable D. Burris testified: That he searched appellant’s residence five or six times during said months and found whisky in the ice box most every time he was there. It was Hill & Hill whisky. That he saw several people visiting appellant’s place. They would go in and stay but a few minutes and come out. He saw both whites and blacks visit the place. That he knew Addie Watson, appellant’s sister, and cannot say whether he ever saw her at appellant’s house during said months.

Elbert Abshire testified, in substance, to three separate and distinct sales of whisky by appellant to him during said months, a pint at one time, a half pint at another, and a quart the other, stating how much cash he paid him each time for the whisky. In telling how and where he would see appellant at each time, his testimony was to the effect that he would call him out of the back of his house to an alley and tell him how much whisky he wanted and give him the money therefor; that the appellant usually went into his house, was gone some short time, and would bring and deliver the whis-ky to him; that sometimes when appellant would tell him he did not have the whisky, he would ask him to see if he could not get it from Lee Scott. His testimony indicates that he got liquor from appellant one way or another during said months a greater number of times than three; that all the whisky he got from appellant was Hill & Hill whisky-.

Floyd Abshire testified: That during said months he would go to appellant’s house, call him out, and ask him if he could get some whisky, and appellant would say he would try. That he would give him the money for whatever quantity he wanted, and appellant would be gone five or ten minutes. He would go back in his house, through the back [547]*547door, out of which he had called him, and sometimes when he would come back he would come around the house. He would then bring and deliver the whisky to him where he had remained. The substance of his testimony was to show that during said time he bought whisky from appellant three or four distinct times.

Lucy Thomas testified that in December, 1915, she bought a half pint of whisky from appellant and paid him 50 cents for it.

Appellant did not testify at all. He introduced no testimony and no witness, except one, who testified only that Lucy Thomas’ reputation for truth and veracity was bad.

Appellant was indicted the latter part of January, 1916, and tried in August following. He made an application for a continuance on account of the absence of his sister, Addie Watson. It does not state it is his first. It must be his second, as it has allegations therein not required in his first but which are required in a second or subsequent application. She was sick at the time of his trial and could not attend. She had been subpoenaed. In his application, he alleges that she would testify that:

“On the dates alleged by the indictment and for several days prior and subsequent thereto, she was an inmate of his home and there during all this time, and that appellant did not make the said sale or sales as alleged in the indictment. That during this time she saw no intoxicating liquors in his home, and to the best of her knowledge and belief there was none in his home during said time, and that because of the size, location, and condition of his home, he could not have made a sale as alleged in the indictment without her knowledge of the same,” and that “he knows from no other source from which he can secure the evidence to the same •facts and to the same extent that the same can be secured by this witness.”

He also claimed tbe court erred in refusing bim a new trial because of tbe overruling of bis application for a continuance. To bis motion be attached tbe affidavit of bis said sister — sworn to by ber as “true to tbe best of ber knowledge” — more elaborately but substantially to tbe same effect as bis application would show sbe would testify. Whether that affidavit was introduced in evidence before tbe trial judge at tbe time be heard and overruled the motion for a new trial (Page v. State, 189 S. W. 951), and what other testimony, if any, was introduced, is not disclosed by the record.

The statute (article 608, C. C. P.) expressly enacts that an application for a continuance by an accused “shall not be granted as a matter of right”; that tbe truth of tbe first, or any subsequent, application, as well as tbe merit of the ground set forth therein and its sufficiency, “shall be addressed to tbe sound discretion of tbe court called to pass upon tbe same.” It further provides that, “should an application for continuance be overruled, and tbe” accused “convicted, if it appear * * * that” tbe testimony of tbe absent witness “was of a material character, and that tbe facts set forth in said application were probably true,” a new trial should be granted. The decisions of this state since tbe enactment of said statute have held in accordance therewith.

Judge White, in his Ann. C. C. P., in section 643, subdiv. 2, lays down this correct rule:

“An application for continuance will be held properly overruled when, in connection with the evidence adduced on the trial, it is apparent that the proposed absent testimony would not be probably true. Carver v. State, 36 Tex. Cr. R. 552 [38 S. W. 183]; Reyons v. State, 33 Tex. Cr. R. 143 [25 S. W. 786, 47 Am. St. Rep. 25]; McKinney v. State, 31 Tex. Cr. R. 583 [21 S. W. 683]; Brotherton v. State, 30 Tex. App. 369 [17 S. W. 932]; Withers v. State, 30 Tex. App. 383 [17 S. W. 936]; Leeper and Powell v. State, 29 Tex. App. 63 [14 S. W. 398]; Wilks v. State, 27 Tex. App. 381 [11 S. W. 415]; Testard v. State, 26 Tex. App. 260 [9 S. W. 888]; Peterson v. State, 25 Tex. App. 70 [7 S. W. 530]; Melton v. State, 24 Tex. App. 47 [5 S. W. 652]; Parker v.

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191 S.W. 546, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/watson-v-state-texcrimapp-1917.