State v. Jones
| Decision Date | 10 April 1918 |
| Docket Number | 345. |
| Citation | 95 S.E. 576,175 N.C. 709 |
| Parties | STATE v. JONES. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Surry County; Shaw, Judge.
J. P Jones was convicted of manufacturing liquor contrary to statute, and he appeals. No error.
Evidence held to support a conviction for manufacturing intoxicating liquor.
The defendant was charged with the manufacture of liquor contrary to the statute. As there was a motion to nonsuit, it will be necessary to state some of the evidence.
U. G Belton testified:
In consequence of information received by me, I went with E G. Smith, revenue officer, and two policemen of the town of Mt. Airy, to the home of the defendant, Sampson Jones. We went into the smokehouse, a few feet in the rear of the dwelling, and there found a 50-gallon barrel about two-thirds full of still beer, two 25-gallon tubs, which apparently had had still beer in them, and something like a peck of rye malt. Just outside the smokehouse door was a 50-gallon barrel about two-thirds full of sweet cider. We also found a 5-gallon keg on the back porch which smelt like corn whisky, and which apparently had been recently emptied; perhaps a little of the whisky remaining in the bottom of the keg. I was not in the house when the can and coffeepot and things were found up stairs, having gone out down the branch, away from the house, searching, but found nothing down there. When I came back these things had been found. I went in the room, saw the furnace of rock and mud about four or five feet long and about eighteen inches high, built on the floor; saw the dead coals and ashes, apparently fresh ashes, and the oil can, coffeepot, still-worm, and keg. The keg containing the still-worm was sitting near the furnace, the worm being attached to the keg, and the lower end of the still-worm extending out through a hole near the bottom of the keg. There was also a brass faucet in the lower part of the keg, apparently for draining the keg. I do not remember whether there was any water in the keg when I got there or not. The still-worm was several feet long in a coil, and is what I call a fine worm. The oil can held about 5 gallons; the opening at the top was enlarged, and had a collar about it. The coffeepot, which held about 3 quarts, had been split up about the spout and lapped over so that it fitted the opening in this still. I was four years a brandy gauger, and visited, on an average, 50 or more brandy distilleries a year. I have also seen in operation a great many whisky distilleries, and know the outfit and ingredients necessary for the making of whisky and brandy. Still beer is the fermented meal or malt out of which whisky is made by distillation. Low wine is a whisky, less than proof, which runs out through a worm at the end of the 'doubling,' and which in the ordinary process is poured into the next 'run' to make it proof liquor. The necessary outfit for making whisky is a still, a still cap, a still-worm, and a cooling tub. The paraphernalia found at Sampson Jones', when connected up, made a complete distillery outfit to manufacture either whisky or brandy, and I should say that the outfit there found would make from five to seven gallons of liquor in a day."
M. F. Patterson testified:
I was at J. P. Jones' with Sheriff Belton, Deputy Sheriff Favis, and Policeman Monday and Revenue Officer E. G. Smith. We went there in the afternoon, some time prior to October term of court. We found in the smokehouse, a few yards in the rear of the dwelling, a barrel about three-fourths full of still beer, and two empty 25-gallon receptacles which appeared to have had still beer in them, and some rye malt. Just outside the smokehouse we found a 50-gallon barrel about three-fourths full of sweet cider. While the others were making the search about the premises, E. G. Smith and myself went in the dwelling house, which was open, and searched the rooms down stairs, and found nothing, except the ordinary furnishings. We went up stairs, accompanied by a son of J. P. Jones, a boy of about 14 or 15 years of age, and searched the two front rooms, and found, behind a trunk, two quarts in bottles of low wine. When we came to the door of the room over the kitchen it was locked, and we asked the boy to let us into this room, but he hesitated and said he would rather not go in there until his father came, and that he was on the upper place, about a mile in Virginia. He then took the key, which was hanging somewhere about the door, and unlocked it. We found in this room over the kitchen a furnace of rock and mud, or mortar, built on the floor near the chimney, about 4 or 5 feet long and from 14 to 18 inches high. By the side of the furnace was a wooden keg with a still-worm in it, and there was also on the floor a tin can holding about 4 gallons, which looked like an oil can, and a coffeepot with a copper arm or spout about 18 inches long. We took the 5-gallon can and set it on top of the furnace, and it fitted exactly into the opening surrounded by a rim of mortar. The bottom of the can was black and the sides of it were smoked black, and there was what appeared to be baked meal around the top of the can. The opening in the top of the 5-gallon can was not so large as the opening at the top of the coffeepot, about 3-quart coffeepot. The upper part of the coffeepot had been split and lapped over, so lapped that it fitted exactly into the top of the can. The end of the arm or spout extending from the coffeepot fitted exactly into the stillworm in the tub or keg. They were not connected, however, but lying in different parts of the room. The defendant, Jones, was not at home. His son was there clerking in the store. He went in the house with us and told us his father was at work on the farm. The house had three rooms up stairs and three rooms down stairs. There were cans packed in the room over the kitchen in which we found the furnace and other articles of furniture. We found two bottles of backings or wines in a bedroom behind a trunk, not the room in which we found the furnace and other articles mentioned. Jones lives on the sand-clay road, about four miles from Mt. Airy, in a thickly populated neighborhood."
There was other testimony of a like kind.
The defendant was convicted, and appealed from the judgment of the court.
Folger, Jackson & Folger, for appellant.
James S. Manning, Atty. Gen., and Robert H. Sykes, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
WALKER, J. (after stating the facts as above).
There was ample evidence to support the verdict, and the motion to nonsuit was properly overruled. The evidence tended to show that defendant had been engaged in the business of manufacturing liquor. He had on his premises and in his residence all the component parts of a perfect apparatus for distilling liquor, and if others assisted in the process of manufacturing, there was also evidence that the defendant not only permitted the illegal business to be done in his house, but actually furnished the still and the place for using it, and this would make him a participant in the crime. The charge of the court that, if the defendant took part in the offense by giving his permission to the use of his premises for the illegal purpose, he would be guilty, is clearly sustained by the case of State v. Denton, 154 N.C. 641, 70 S.E. 839, where this court held, as shown by the headnotes, as follows:
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