2 Ga. App. 711 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1907
Davis Bonner was- convicted of the offense of selling whisky in Early county, where the sale of spirituous liquors is prohibited by law. His motion for a new trial being overruled, he brings the pase to this court. Error is assigned upon the ruling of the court in admitting, over the objection of the defendant, the following testimony: that on (Several occasions packages or boxes had come through the express office, addressed to Davis Bonner, and, on looking through the cracks of the boxes, bottles were seen that looked like they might be quarts of whisky; that on two different occasions the defendant, Davis Bonner, had carried from the express office two large boxes weighing about sixty pounds, having printed thereon “seventy-two half pints,” “White Oak Whisky,” “Chattanooga.” We think the testimony was admissible, as against the objection that it was irrelevant and immaterial. While it was not a violation of law to purchase whisky outside of the county and ship it thereto, yet, where the defendant was charged with selling whisky in the county in viola-
The following charge we think is justly assigned as error: “If you believe, gentlemen of the jury, that the defendant, Davis Bonner,- received of Dock Knight money, and went off, and in a short time returned and furnished Dock Knight with whisky, that would make him guilty, unless he has given the jury satisfactory information as 'to how he got the whisky and that his connection therewith was lawful.” We think that these facts would be evidence of a more or less probative value, to be determined by the jury; but the charge that these facts “would make him guilty,” even if unexplained by him, expresses too strongly the inference arising from the facts. This charge leaves out of consideration entirely that the money must have been given to the defendant by Dock Knight for the purpose of buying whisky which he subsequently delivered to him. The case relied upon by the solicitor-general in support of this charge is Billups v. State, 107 Ga. 766 (33 S. E. 659). In that case, the Supreme Court said, in substance, that if the State proved by a witness that he had given the accused money with which to. buy whisky, and that the ac-•c-used was absent about half an hour, and when he returned he brought back a bottle of whisky and delivered it to the witness, this made out a prima facie case for the State; but the important .fact that the money must have been given by the witness to the accused for the purpose of buying whisky is entirely omitted from the charge complained of.
The most serious objection to this verdict, however, is that there is no evidence in the record which in any measure gives it support. The only fact proved by the State was that a witness had given the accused 'twenty-five cents for the purpose of going to the express office and getting a package of whisky for him, paying the express charge thereon with the twenty-five cents, and that subsequently the party who gave-'the twenty-five cents to the accused for this purpose went to the house of the - accused and got this whisky. The witness who testified to .this fact was introduced by • the-State? and,his testimony-.is as follows: ' “I saw Davis Bonner