State v. Jones
| Decision Date | 14 November 1903 |
| Citation | 53 W.Va. 613,45 S.E. 916 |
| Parties | STATE. v. JONES. |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
HOUSE OF ILL FAME—INDICTMENT—CRIMINAL LAW—CONTINUANCE—HUSBAND AND WIFE.
1. An indictment charging the keeping of a house of ill fame in the language of the statute is sufficient on demurrer or motion to quash.
V 1. See Disorderly House, vol. 17, Cent. Dig. 14.
2. Where the trial court sees the only object for a continuance is matter of delay, the court commits no error in refusing to grant it.
3. It is not error for the trial court to compel a defendant, who is seeking a continuance for the purpose of delay to disclose what she expects to prove by an absent witness.
4. A husband and wife are equally guilty in keeping a house of ill fame in property used, occupied, and controlled by them both, and in such cases she is not presumed to be acting.under his coercion.
(Syllabus by the Court.)
Error to Circuit Court, Marion County; John W. Mason, Judge.
Mamie Jones was convicted of crime, and brings error. Affirmed.
T. N. Parks and U. N. Arnett, Jr., for plaintiff in error.
C. Powell, Atty. Gen., for the State.
DENT, J. Mrs. Mamie Jones, wife of Fes-tus, complains because the intermediate court of Marion county found her guilty of keeping a house of ill fame, and adjudged her to pay a fine of $100, and to rest in prison in the county jail for 30 days. The circuit court would afford her no relief, and so she presents her objections to this court.
The first is that the indictment is insufficient It is as follows: "State of West Virginia, Marion County, to wit: In the Cicuit Court of the Said County. November Term, 1900. The grand jurors of the state of West Virginia, in and for the body of the county of Marion, and now attending the circuit court of the said county, upon the oaths present that Mamie Jones, to wit, on the ——day of October, 1900, and on di-
vers other days and times thereafter, at the said county of Marion, unlawfully did keep and maintain a certain house of ill fame, resorted to during all that time, and now resorted to, by divers idle and dissolute persons, both men and women, to the jurors aforesaid unknown, for the purpose of prostitution and lewdness, against the peace and dignity of the state. G. M. Alexander, Prosecuting Attorney for the Said County of Marion." It follows the statute, except it contains some unnecessary surplusage. State v. Emblem, 44 W. Va. 522, 525, 528, 29 S. E. 1031. The date charged is immaterial, so it is not impossible, or after the finding of the indictment, or subject to the bar of the statute of limitations. It is not necessary to allege any act of lewdness or prostitution, as the words "keeping a house of ill fame" implies all this, under our statute. It is not necessary to charge that the house was in a public place, or in any wise affected the public. To keep it in a private place is forbidden by the statute, and houses of ill fame are recognized as injurious to public morals, wherever kept. The indictment in the case of State v. McGahan, 48 W Va. 438, 37 S. E. 573, was for keeping a disorderly house, and not a house of ill fame. The motion to quash the indictment was properly...
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