Tomlinson v. State
| Decision Date | 09 September 1924 |
| Docket Number | A-4470. |
| Citation | 228 P. 608,27 Okla.Crim. 429 |
| Parties | TOMLINSON v. STATE. |
| Court | United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma |
Syllabus by the Court.
Where a conviction is sought upon circumstantial evidence alone, the circumstances proved must be consistent with each other, and inconsistent with any rational hypothesis other than defendant's guilt.
In a prosecution for unlawful possession of intoxicating liquor evidence considered, and held insufficient to support verdict and judgment of conviction.
Appeal from County Court, Carter County; M. F. Winfrey, Judge.
P. H Tomlinson was convicted of a violation of the prohibitory liquor law, and he appeals. Reversed.
James H. Mathers, of Ardmore, for plaintiff in error.
George F. Short, Atty. Gen., and J. Roy Orr, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
The information in this case charges that P. H. Tomlinson did have in his possession four pints of whisky with the unlawful intent to sell the same. Upon his trial he was found guilty and his punishment fixed at a fine of $50 and confinement in the county jail for 30 days. He has appealed from the judgment rendered upon such conviction.
The errors assigned question the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict.
Con Kerzie, chief of police at Healdton and deputy sheriff, testified that he visited the defendant's place of business on the roadside between the towns of Dillard and Rexroat, about 7 miles from Healdton, and with other officers found four pints of whisky hid in the weeds behind defendant's place, and that the place had the reputation of being a bootlegging joint; that defendant and his wife and three children lived in the back part of the little store; that there were a number of oil derricks and a number of people just back of the place and within a short distance from where the whisky was found, and it might have been on Westheimer's land.
Deputy Sheriff Gravitt testified:
"We stopped to search the place; the other boys went in the house; I went on the outside, and found in the weeds four bottles of whisky, just across a ditch 20 or 25 feet back from this store; oil derricks and lots of roustabouts working there; never raided the place before."
As a witness in his own behalf, P. H. Tomlinson testified that his wife and himself and three small children lived in this little store on the section line; that he and his wife measured with a tape from his home to where the...
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