Steele v. State

• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
• Citation: Steele v. State, 166 S.W. 511, 73 Tex.Cr.R. 352 (Tex. Crim. App. 1914)
• Decision Date: 08 April 1914
• Docket Number: (No. 3084.)
• Parties: STEELE v. STATE.
• Writing for the Court: Prendergast

166 S.W. 511

STEELE v. STATE.

(No. 3084.)

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

April 8, 1914.

Rehearing Denied May 6, 1914.

Appeal from Nacogdoches County Court; Geo. F. Ingraham, Judge.

Roy Steele was convicted of carrying a pistol, and he appeals. Affirmed.

J. F. Perritte, of Nacogdoches, for appellant. C. E. Lane, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

PRENDERGAST, P. J.

Appellant was convicted for carrying a pistol. Appellant asked the court to charge that if the jury believed from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the appellant did have a pistol, as charged, but "you further believe that the pistol was not in shooting condition, or if you have a reasonable doubt" of it, find him not guilty. He also complains of this paragraph of the court's charge: "If the defendant carried a pistol, it would not make any difference whether the pistol was an old one or a new one, or was loaded or unloaded. The law merely says that it is unlawful to carry a pistol, and makes no difference whether it was a good pistol or an inferior one, but it must be a pistol."

The court qualified appellant's bill complaining of this charge by stating: "That the witness Andrew Arriola testified, in speaking of the gun: `I felt something in his pocket, and pulled it out, and it was a pistol; was a common-looking blue pistol. It all seemed to be there, and as far as I know it was a whole pistol. It had hammer and all.' Tom Collins testified: `Roy Steele and Cal Eddings' boy caught up with us. Directly Andrew came up to the wagon and said: "Look here! what I got," and showed us a pistol. It was loaded, and the cartridges looked...