Snead v. State

• Decision Date: 13 May 1918
• Docket Number: (No. 360.)
• Citation: 203 S.W. 703
• Parties: SNEAD v. STATE.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

203 S.W. 703

SNEAD v. STATE.

(No. 360.)

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

May 13, 1918.

Appeal from District Court, Garland County; Scott Wood, Judge.

Henry Snead was convicted of unlawful and felonious sale of liquor, and appeals. Reversed and remanded for new trial.

C. T. Cotham, Arthur Cobb, and R. M. Ryan, all of Hot Springs, for appellant. Jno. D. Arbuckle, Atty. Gen., and T. W. Campbell, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

WOOD, J.

Appellant was charged with the unlawful and felonious sale of liquor, in Garland county, Ark., in September, 1917. Ike Warren testified, for the state, in part as follows:

"As near as I can recollect, Snead came over there to Whitman's parlor, and I asked him could he get me some `Shorty,' and he told me that he thought that he could get some; then I gave him a dollar and a quarter, and he was gone about 25 or 30 minutes, perhaps a little longer, before he came back. He brought a half pint bottle of whisky back with him. He told me he got it from a boy named Smoky up on Cedar street. He told me, before he started after the whisky, that he thought that he could get it from Smoky. I did not know that Smoky had any whisky to sell until Snead told me so."

Appellant testified in part as follows:

"I know Ike Warren. I have never sold him any whisky, but I have got whisky for him twice. That was some time the latter part of last year. I saw a fellow by the name of Smoky that was hanging around here, and he told me that he had some whisky. He came in here two or three times a week. He told me that he was bringing whisky in, and told me that if I saw anybody that wanted any to tell him. I told him that I didn't like to do that kind of business. I was over there at Whitman's parlors, and Ike asked me if I knew where he could get some whisky; wanted me to go get some for him. I told him I didn't know, but I would see if I could get some from Smoky; so I looked him up. I told Ike that I thought that I could get it from Smoky before I started after it. I got the whisky from Smoky and took it back to Ike. He gave me the money both times before I started after the whisky. * * * I had no pecuniary interest in the sale of the whisky to Ike Warren whatever."

The court instructed the jury in effect that under the undisputed evidence the defendant was a necessary factor in bringing about the sale, and that therefore they should return a verdict of guilty. The appellant, among other things, requested the court to grant the following prayer:

"You are instructed that if the defendant, at the request of the prosecuting witness, Ike Warren, and solely as the agent of the prosecuting witness, and without having any interest in the sale of the liquor, other than to procure the liquor for the prosecuting witness, went to the party from whom the whisky was purchased, and with the money furnished him by the said Ike Warren, and without making any profit, or having any pecuniary interest or other interest in the sale, purchased whisky, which he carried to Ike Warren, as a matter solely to accommodate Ike Warren, and not for the purpose of procuring a purchaser for the whisky, or to assist in any way the seller in making the sale, then you should acquit the defendant."

The court refused this prayer. Ap...