State v. Bush
| Decision Date | 19 February 1919 |
| Docket Number | 1. |
| Citation | 98 S.E. 281,177 N.C. 551 |
| Parties | STATE v. BUSH. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Pasquotank County; Bond, Judge.
Charles Bush was convicted of having whisky in his possession for the purpose of sale, and he appeals. No error.
The defendant was indicted and convicted in the recorder's court for having in his possession 16 gallons of whisky for the purposes of sale. On appeal to the superior court he was again convicted and appealed.
A sentence to 4 months in jail of defendant, convicted of having 16 gallons of whisky in his possession for purposes of sale, was not excessive.
Aydlett Simpson & Sawyer, of Elizabeth City, for appellant.
James S. Manning, Atty. Gen., Frank Nash, Asst. Atty. Gen., and J C. B. Ehringhaus, of Elizabeth City, for the State.
The chief point pressed on the argument here was the refusal of the court to charge that "if the jury believed all the evidence to return a verdict of not guilty." The evidence against the defendant in the record, and as fairly summed up by the trial judge, is that the defendant about 10 a. m. came to the witness Will Morris, the owner, and in charge of the stable, which was locked and not in use, and asked permission to have a trunk put in there. Morris says that he gave the defendant the key to the stable, and soon after that he saw a trunk in the stable, and that defendant did not return the key to him. Chief of Police Thomas testified that he went to the stables and found the trunk and that it had 48 quarts of liquor in it. He had a search warrant, but he could not find the defendant, who left town that night about midnight, and was brought back from New Bern by an officer, to whom papers had been sent for his arrest.
Morris, the owner of the stable, further says that the chief of police, Thomas, got the trunk which he saw in the stables, that Bush never came back for the trunk and never returned the key, that Bush in talking to him may have said that he would have two trunks to put in there. He says that he saw the trunk sitting in there between 10 and 2 o'clock, and there was no other trunk there that day; that the door was open, and that the defendant was in the habit of carrying trunks about, with different sets of harness with him, which he used for race horse purposes.
The witness Gray, a colored drayman, says that he hauled a trunk that day; that he put it in Mr. Morris' stables; that the trunk was brought to him on a truck; that the truck came from the direction of where the cars were, though he did not see it brought out of the car; that in fact he hauled two trunks at that time, which was about 10 o'clock, and put them in Morris' stables; that he never saw the man before who got him to haul the trunk out there, but it was not the defendant; that he does not know whether the trunks came out of the car or not; that the man who got him to haul the trunks was not the defendant, and that the man asked him if he knew where Morris' stables were.
The chief of police further testified that he went to the car, and found the horse in there and 12 cases of liquor, and that about dusk he saw this trunk (which was in court) in Morris' stables, and that it had 48 quarts of liquor in it; that he arrested a man whose name was Al Bush, who he noticed was dodging him, and used the searchlight on him. He found him in another stable.
It appears that Al Bush was convicted, and does not appeal, and presumably the evidence as to him is not in this record. The case stands, therefore, upon the above evidence uncontradicted (for the defendant did not go on the stand or put on any evidence), that the defendant Charles Bush got the key from Morris, the owner of the stables, expressing the wish to put a trunk therein. A trunk was there about midday, and was searched about dusk by the chief of police, who found 48 quarts of liquor in it. There is no explanation by or for the defendant, to whom he gave the key, nor to contradict the presumption that this was his trunk, nor any explanation why, when the search warrant was issued for the trunk, he was not present, and why he left later that night for New Bern, and was brought back by an officer under a capias issued for him in this...
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