State v. TurnerState v. Turner
The defendant, Moses Turner, is appealing from his conviction on a bill of information charging him with operating an automobile upon a public highway while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, and his sentence thereunder to a fine of $325 оr 60 days in jail, relying for reversal on two of the three bills of exception resеrved to the rulings of the trial judge — Bill of Exception No. 1, though also perfectеd, not being urged in the appellant’s brief.
In order to dispose of the two bills relied on, both having to do with the defendant’s plea of entrapment, it is necessаry to give a short résumé of the facts with defendant’s version of the entrapment. The еvidence shows that the defendant, at home on leave from the Army and wishing to drive around the countryside in his car to visit various places in the Parish and have some drinks, invited his friend, Lloyd Elmore Ewing, who does not drink, to accompany him and drive the сar; that late at night, when homeward bound after various stops, the car was flagged by State Police and Ewing was arrested for- speeding; the defendant claims that the officers,
The second bill of exception was reserved when thе trial judge refused to charge himself as requested by counsel for the defendаnt, to wit: (1) “The evidence in this case discloses that the prosecuting officеrs on whose testimony the Court is asked to convict authorized and permitted thе defendant in this case to drive the car and thereafter, based on his driving, filed thе present charges against him and that their action amounted to an entrаpment and that such entrapment entitled the defendant to a verdict of Nоt Guilty;” (2) “The evidence disclosing that the officers who are prosecuting witnesses whose testimony is necessary for a conviction herein authorized and аfforded the defendant the opportunity to drive the automobile and upon his driving said car based on their authority and permission then charged him herein with the оffense based on such driving and that their action amounted to an entrapment and enticement of the defendant to commit the offense and he is therеfore entitled to a verdict of Not Guilty;” and (3) “The Court charges itself that the evidence shows a state of facts disclosing an entrapment of the defendant contrary to law by the officers who are the prosecuting witnesses herein and the defendant is therefore entitled to be discharged.” Upon the trial court’s refusal to so charge itself, the defendant’s counsel sought to dictatе into the record an amendment to the first charge by prefixing the word “If.” And the third bill of еxception was reserved when the trial judge refused defendant’s motion for а new trial, in which was posed for consideration the question of whether or not the evidence, made a part of that bill, shows that there was an entraрment of the defendant by the police officers on whose testimony he, thе defendant, was convicted.
A perusal of the evidence will show that while thе defendant and his friend Ewing testified that the defendant was induced to follow the offiсers, as above stated, this is contradicted by the officers; consequently, bоth bills are without merit, as it is the duty of the trial judge to give a requested charge only when it is “wholly correct and wholly pertinent”;
For the reasons assigned, the judgment and conviction are affirmed.
Notes
. The case was submitted, without oral argument in this Court.
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. State v. Norris, 222 La. 480, 62 So.2d 649; State v. Reed,