State v. Johnson
| Decision Date | 19 October 1938 |
| Docket Number | 219. |
| Citation | 199 S.E. 96,214 N.C. 319 |
| Parties | STATE v. JOHNSON. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Wilkes County; J. W. Pless, Jr., Judge.
Adam Johnson was convicted of reckless driving and operating a motor vehicle on the public highways while under the influence of intoxicating liquors, and he appeals.
Remanded with directions to strike out the former judgment and verdict of the jury.
This is a criminal action tried on warrants issued by the Mayor of North Wilkesboro. The defendant was tried in the Mayor's Court of said town under two warrants in which he was charged with the crime of reckless driving and the crime of operating a motor vehicle on the public highways of North Wilkesboro while under the influence of intoxicating liquors. He was convicted on each of said charges and he appealed from the judgments pronounced. In the Superior Court, there being certain other charges against this defendant and one Green Johnson, all of the cases were consolidated for trial. The jury returned a verdict against this defendant of guilty of operating a car while under the influence of liquor and of reckless driving. It failed to agree as to the other charges and as to them a mistrial was ordered.
From judgment pronounced on the verdict of the jury the defendant appealed.
Trivette & Holshouser and Hayes & Hayes, all of North Wilkesboro, for appellant.
Harry McMullan, Atty. Gen., and T. W. Bruton and Robt. Wettach Asst. Attys. Gen., for the State.
The defendant in due time appeared and filed a motion in this court to dismiss this action for that the court below was without jurisdiction to try the defendant and to impose sentence upon the verdict rendered.
In the court below the defendant was put to trial on the warrants issued by the Mayor of North Wilkesboro. No bill of indictment was found and returned against him. This was permissible only in the event the Mayor of North Wilkesboro had final jurisdiction under the warrants issued by him.
The charter of the Town of North Wilkesboro was revised and amended by Chapter 144, Private Laws 1913. By the terms of said act the Mayor of said town was constituted a special court with limited jurisdiction of criminal offenses occurring within the limits of said town and within two miles from the corporate limits thereof. This statute in Section 9 enumerates in detail the several offenses of which the said ...
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