Gammill v. State

• Decision Date: 08 June 1938
• Docket Number: No. 19824.,19824.
• Citation: 117 S.W.2d 790
• Parties: GAMMILL v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

117 S.W.2d 790

GAMMILL v. STATE.

No. 19824.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

June 8, 1938.

Commissioners' Decision.

Appeal from District Court, Liberty County; Thos. B. Coe, Judge.

E. G. Gammill was convicted of passing a forged instrument and received a life sentence under averment and proof of former convictions, and he appeals.

Reversed and the cause remanded.

S. K. Long and O. M. Lord, both of Beaumont, for appellant.

Lloyd W. Davidson, State's Atty., of Austin, for the State.

CHRISTIAN, Judge.

The offense is passing a forged instrument. Under averments and proof of former convictions of felonies less than capital appellant was assessed a penalty of confinement in the penitentiary for life.

After appropriate averments charging forgery and passing of a forged instrument in the present case as occurring on the 11th day of January, 1936, the indictment contained the following allegations:

"And the Grand Jurors do further present that prior to the commission of the aforesaid offense of forgery and the offense of unlawfully passing and attempting to pass a forged instrument, by the said E. G. Gammill, on the 26th day of July, A.D. 1932, in the District Court of Harrison County, Texas, the said E. G. Gammill was duly and legally convicted, in said last named court of an offense, to-wit, unlawfully transporting intoxicating liquor, said offense being a felony less than capital, upon an indictment in Cause No. 16190, State of Texas v. Jim Powell, said indictment then legally pending in said last named Court and of which the said court had jurisdiction, the said E. G. Gammill being one and the same person convicted under the name of Jim Powell in said last named court and in said Cause No. 16190, then pending in said last named court.

"And the Grand Jurors do further present that prior to the commission of the aforesaid offense of forgery and the offense of unlawfully passing and attempting to pass a forged instrument by the said E. G. Gammill, hereinbefore charged in this indictment, the said E. G. Gammill was duly and legally convicted in Cause No. 6020, styled State of Texas v. M. C. Moore in the District Court for the County of Cherokee, State of Texas, on the 30th day of July, A.D. 1934, of the offense of forgery, said offense of forgery being of like character and the same nature as that hereinbefore charged against him herein, said offense being less than capital, upon an indictment then legally pending in said last named court and of which the said court had jurisdiction, the said E. G. Gammill being one and the same person convicted under the name of M. C. Moore in said last named court in said Cause No. 6020, then pending in said last named court.

"And the Grand Jurors do further present that prior to the commission of the aforesaid offense of forgery and the offense of unlawfully passing and attempting to pass a forged instrument by the said E. G. Gammill hereinbefore charged in this indictment, the said E. G. Gammill was duly and legally convicted in the District Court of Cherokee County, State of Texas, on the 30th day of July, A.D. 1934, of the offense of forgery, said offense of forgery being of like character and of the same nature as that hereinbefore charged against him herein, said offense being less than capital, upon an indictment in Cause No. 6021, State of Texas v. M. C. Moore, upon an indictment then legally pending in said last named court and of which the said court had jurisdiction, the said E. G. Gammill being the same person convicted under the name of M. C. Moore in said last named court, and in Cause No. 6021, then...