Willerson v. State

478 S.W.2d 907, 1972 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 345
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJanuary 24, 1972
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 478 S.W.2d 907 (Willerson v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Willerson v. State, 478 S.W.2d 907, 1972 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 345 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinion

OPINION

MITCHELL, Judge.

The defendants Roger Dale Willerson, Marshal E. Fortner and Wayne K. Slaughter were indicted March 1, 1971 in the Criminal Court of Bradley County, Tennessee upon a charge of unlawfully and feloniously possessing explosives, dynamite, fuses, caps and wiring in violations of regulations of state fire marshal, for purpose of commiting illegal act in January 1971. The indictment was based on T.C.A. § 39-1406 which is in the following language:

“Except as authorized by law or regulations of the state fire marshal, any person or persons who may be found to be in possession of or to have transported any explosive or explosives, or to have in possession or transported any component part of an explosive or explosives such as fuses, caps, detonators, wiring, or other means of creating an explosion or explosions of an illegal act capable of producing conditions destructive to life or property shall be deemed guilty of a felony.”

Defendants were tried and convicted March 24, 1971. The jury fixed punishment at two years each in state penitentiary on which the trial judge Honorable James C. Witt pronounced judgment.

The motion for a new trial was heard and overruled April 24, 1971. The defendants prayed and were granted an appeal and have assigned errors.

About eight o’clock Sunday evening January 17, 1971, Officer James Robert Crawford a semi-retired City Policeman and his partner in their patrol car were making their regular check in the area of the city dump. As they were traveling south on Shelia Street approaching 6th Street in Cleveland, Tennessee, they observed a Mustang automobile, Tennessee License No. CR04S6, parked in the center of the street. The man under the wheel took a drink out of a paper cup and threw it out the window. One of the officers turned on the blinker light of their car and got out. The defendants Roger Dale Willerson, Marshal E. Fortner and Wayne K. Slaughter were in the Mustang car.

The driver of the Mustang, Wayne Slaughter, got out and came meeting the officers exhibiting his drivers license.

While Crawford’s partner Rouser was checking the drivers license Crawford looked into the defendants’ car and on the floorboard in plain view he saw a circular bundle of dynamite bound with masking tape. They found another bundle of dynamite sticks on the floorboard of the rear seat. Officer Crawford saw one of the defendants twisting an empty Salem cigarette pack which he put in his shirt pocket. Two weeks later they found 4 little blasting caps in an empty Salem cigarette pack under the front seat of the patrol car in which the defendants had ridden. There were 25 sticks of dynamite in each bundle. They were wrapped with white masking tape. The roll of the tape in the car corresponded in width and color with the tape wrapped around the dynamite. “The bundle in the front part of the car had one of these type pencils, with the shield on, sticking straight up in the center of the bundle.” Experts say that an instrument similar to the pencil may be used in inserting or placing blasting caps in the dynamite.

Officer Rouser generally corroborated Officer Crawford, and stated it was not necessary to search the car to see the dynamite and the bottle of whiskey or tape in it. That the way the pencil was gouged down in the bundle of dynamite meant somebody was fixing to put blasting caps into the dynamite.

[909]*909The defendants had no permit issued by the State Fire Marshal.

The defendants Slaughter and Willerson testified but Fortner did not testify. It was the contention of the defendants that they are not guilty. That the Mustang was defendant Slaughter’s car. They were driv-ig towards Cleveland. Roger Dale Willer-son had some kind of whiskey. They stopped to let them use the restroom. Roger and Marshal had been drinking and came back to the car with two packages which they though were railroad flares. They had no idea they were possessing dynamite. Slaughter said they did not have anything like dynamite caps or electric wires. That they did not attempt to conceal the bundles.

Roger Dale Willerson said he was fixing up a car for his wife and was going to do some painting to it and had Wayne Slaughter get him a roll of tape to use in painting it.

That they were on their way to see some girls in Cleveland but they got lost and did not get to the place. They stopped to use the bathroom. That he and Marshal were in behind the Mustang and saw the big white packages over beside the road. They did not know what they were, and carried them back to the car, that he thought they might be railroad flares. That they did not have any dynamite caps. That he had Camel cigarettes. That the officers searched them thoroughly at the time of arrest.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

1. The trial judge erred in denying Defendants’ motion to suppress the evidence obtained in a search of Defendants’ automobile.

2. The trial judge erred in permitting testimony relating to blasting caps found in a police car several days after the Defendants’ arrest.

3. The evidence preponderates against the verdict of the jury and in favor of the Defendants’ innocence.

Assignments of error 1 and 2 cannot be considered because they were not brought to the attention of the trial judge in the motion for a new trial. Hancock v. State, Tenn.Cr.App., 430 S.W.2d 892; Kirby v. State, 214 Tenn. 296, 379 S.W.2d 780.

Under assignment of error 3, the defendants insist that the evidence preponderates against the verdict and in favor of their innocence and that there is no material evidence to support the verdict of guilty.

The verdict of the jury has settled the question of the preponderance of the evidence and as approved by the Trial Court has removed the presumption of innocence which stood for the defendants in the trial court and they are here under a presumption of guilt. We may not reverse a case on the facts unless the evidence preponderates against the verdict and we find it does not. Gann v. State, 214 Tenn. 711, 383 S.W.2d 32; Holt v. State, 210 Tenn. 188, 357 S.W.2d 57.

The defendants contend that the burden is on the state to prove that the State Fire Marshal had not granted the defendants a permit to possess explosives. The law is to the contrary. In Hayes v. State in an opinion by Judge Oris D. Hyder filed April 30, 1970 we said:

“It is forcefully argued that the State failed to show that the defendants did not come within one of the exceptions provided in the statute. It is contended that the State failed to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that possession of the dynamite was not authorized by law or the regulations of the State Fire Marshal. The statute does except certain categories from the operation of its provisions, but these exceptions constitute defenses to a charge under this statute, and the burden is on the defendants to show their existence and that they come within these exceptions. This has been pointed out with approval by our Supreme Court in cases dealing with other crim[910]

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Related

Hayes v. State
513 S.W.2d 144 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 1974)

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Bluebook (online)
478 S.W.2d 907, 1972 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 345, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/willerson-v-state-tenncrimapp-1972.