Eudy v. State

• Decision Date: 25 June 1929
• Docket Number: 8 Div. 745.
• Citation: Eudy v. State, 123 So. 291, 23 Ala.App. 236 (Ala. App. 1929)
• Parties: EUDY v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Appeals

123 So. 291

23 Ala.App. 236

EUDY v. STATE.

8 Div. 745.

Court of Appeals of Alabama

June 25, 1929

Appeal from Circuit Court, Marshall County; W. W. Haralson, Judge.

Silas Eudy was convicted of unlawfully possessing a still, and he appeals. Reversed and remanded.

D Isbell, of Guntersville, for appellant.

Charlie C. McCall, Atty. Gen., for the State.

SAMFORD J.

The evidence for the state in its strongest aspect tends to prove a still found by the officers in a clump of woods 335 yards from defendant's house and in defendant's pasture; a path leading from the still to defendant's barn, which was across the road from the dwelling. Defendant was not at home when the still was found, nor was he ever seen in the pasture, and no evidence tends to prove that defendant ever knew that there was a still so located, save such inference as might be drawn from the fact that the still was on his land. On the contrary, the testimony of defendant was to the effect that he was a man of good character; that he had other business which kept him away from home in the daytime; that he had no occasion to, and never went into, the pasture; that he knew nothing about the still and had nothing to do with it; that there were other parties living as close to the still as was defendant's dwelling.

It would be a dangerous doctrine to lay down a rule that the constructive possession incident to the location of a still in a pasture owned by a defendant, in which there were paths made by stock, leading from a spring branch to defendant's barn, is sufficient evidence upon...