Wortham v. State

219 So. 2d 923, 1969 Miss. LEXIS 1435
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 3, 1969
DocketNo. 45258
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 219 So. 2d 923 (Wortham v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wortham v. State, 219 So. 2d 923, 1969 Miss. LEXIS 1435 (Mich. 1969).

Opinion

INZER, Justice:

Appellant, Horace Wortham, was indicted, tried and convicted in the Circuit Court of Lafayette County on a charge of unlawful sale of intoxicating liquor. He was sentenced to pay a fine of $800 and to serve a term of six months in the county jail. Hence, this appeal.

The controlling question in this case is whether the indictment as returned by the grand jury could be amended to conform with the proof and thereby charge appellant with a violation of the Local Option Alcoholic Beverage Control Law. We hold that it could not.

The indictment charged that the appellant “did on the 8th day of March 1968 wilfully and unlawfully sell intoxicating liquors contrary to the form of the statute.” Appellant moved to quash the indictment for the reason that the voters of Lafayette County had voted on August 13, 1966, to take the county out from under the prohibition laws of the state and that the sale of intoxicating liquors was not unlawful in Lafayette County. This motion was overruled.

The evidence on behalf of the state established that one Roosevelt Owens, Jr., a minor, went to the home of appellant in [924]*924Lafayette County and purchased two pints of “white corn whiskey” for which he paid the sum of $4.50. After the state had rested, it was allowed, over the objection of the appellant, to re-open. and put on proof which established that Lafayette County had held an election in which the voters of the county had voted to come out from under the prohibition laws. The state then proved that the place that appellant sold the whiskey was not in any incorpo-' rated municipality, in any authorized resort area, or in a club where the sale of alcoholic beverages was permitted.

The state then made the following motion:

Your Honor, we would like on behalf of the State of Mississippi to move .to amend this indictment to strike the body thereof, beginning with the word “that”, and insert in lieu thereof the following: “That on the 13th day of August, 1966, a valid election was held for the purpose, under the Election Laws of the State of Mississippi, in Lafayette County, Mississippi, under the provisions of Section 10265-01 through Section 10265^-0 of the Mississippi Code of 1942, Annotated, Recompiled and Amended, at which election said County, by a majority vote of the duly qualified electors voting in the election, determined that the sale, distribution and possession of alcoholic beverages be permitted in Lafayette County, Mississippi, as provided for in House Bill 112 enacted at the Regular 1966 Session of the Legislature and approved by the Governor on May 21, 1966, and that thereafter on the 7th day of March, 1968, in said County and State, and within the jurisdiction of this Court, Horace Wortham did unlawfully sell intoxicating liquor outside the following described areas, to-wit: (a) Any incorporated municipality located within Lafayette County, Mississippi; (b) Outside any qualified resort area within Lafayette County, Mississippi, as approved by the Mississippi State Tax Commission; (c) Outside any club as defined or provided for in Sections 10265-01 through Section 10265^10 of the Mississippi Code of 1942, Annotated, Recompiled as Amended, within said Lafayette County, contrary to the form of the Statute in such case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the State of Mississippi.

Appellant objected to the amendment on the ground that it was an attempt to supply essential elements of the crime charged and was not merely an amendment to make the indictment conform to the proof or correct a formal defect. The trial court overruled the objection and sustained the motion to amend and the indictment was amended in accordance with the motion.

The indictment as amended appears to properly charge appellant with a violation of Section 10265-04, Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (Supp.1966). Appellant urges that the trial court was in error in failing to sustain his motion to quash the indictment and that it was error to allow the state to amend the indictment to supply essential elements of the crime charged.

The original indictment is the usual form used to charge an offense in those counties which have not voted to come out from under the prohibition laws, however, it was not sufficient to properly charge the unlawful sale of intoxicating liquor in a county which had voted to come out from under the prohibition law. The Local Option Alcoholic Beverage Control Act was enacted in 1966 and Section 10265-04, supra, provides:

Subject to all of the provisions and restrictions herein contained, the manufacture, sale, distribution, possession and transportation of alcoholic beverages, as defined herein, shall he lawful in those counties of this State in which, at a local option election called and held for that purpose under the provisions hereof, a majority of the qualified electors voting in such election shall vote in favor thereof, but the manufacture, sale and distribution of such alcoholic beverages [925]*925shall not be permissible or lawful in such counties except in (a) incorporated municipalities located within such counties, (b) qualified resort areas within such counties approved as such by the State Tax Commission or (c) clubs, as hereinafter defined, within such-..counties, whether within a municipality dr -not. (Emphasis added)

This section makes the sale of intoxicating liquors lawful in counties voting in favor of the option to come out from under the prohibition laws, subject to the restrictions and provisions of the Act. This same section makes it illegal to sell alcoholic beverages in any place in the county except in an incorporated municipality, qualified resort or club. There are other sections of the act which make it a violation of the law to sell intoxicating liquor under certain conditions. Section 10265-31 makes it unlawful to sell alcoholic beverages to a person under the age of twenty-one years and Section 10265-32 makes it unlawful to sell alcoholic beverages to certain persons such as mentally defective, visually intoxicated or known to habitually drink intoxicating liquor to an excess. It is also a violation of the act to sell alcoholic beverages without first securing a permit from the State Tax Commission to do so. It is further violation of the act to sell intoxicating beverages not purchased from the State Tax Commission. Therefore it is impossible to determine from the original indictment which of the statutes the defendant-appellant was charged with violating, if any.

The provisions of the general prohibition laws have been suspended in Lafayette County and the sale of intoxicating liquor is legal. In order to charge an unlawful sale the indictment or affidavit must charge that the local option law is in effect in that county, when such is the case, and sufficient facts to show a violation of one of the provisions of the act. The amendment in this case supplied the essential elements that were absent from the original indictment, namely that the local option law was in effect and the sale was made outside a municipality, not in a resort area or a club. We have held in a number of cases that the Court is without power to amend an indictment to supply an essential element in the crime sought to be charged. In Love v. State, 211 Miss. 606, 52 So.2d 470 (1951), we quoted with approval 27 Am.Jur., Indictments and Information, § 54 (1940), which states:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
219 So. 2d 923, 1969 Miss. LEXIS 1435, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wortham-v-state-miss-1969.