Wallace v. State

• Decision Date: 05 March 1928
• Docket Number: 26520
• Citation: 149 Miss. 639,115 So. 778
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: WALLACE v. STATE. [*]

115 So. 778

149 Miss. 639

WALLACE v. STATE. ^[*]

No. 26520

Supreme Court of Mississippi

March 5, 1928

Division B

ARREST. Officer, on information, amounting to probable cause, that felony has been, or is being, committed, may go on premises without warrant to arrest; officer, legally going on premises without warrant to arrest for felony, may testify to finding still, though flight prevented arrest.

Where an officer has information, amounting to probable cause, that a felony has been committed, or is being committed, he may go upon the premises where the crime has been, or is being committed, without a warrant, and make an arrest, and if, in so doing, he finds a still in possession of the defendant, he may testify to such fact, although he was prevented, by the flight of the person sought to be arrested, from making arrest.

HON. C P. LONG, Judge.

APPEAL from circuit court of Itawamba county. HON. C. P. LONG Judge.

Ed Wallace was convicted of having possession of a still, and he appeals. Affirmed.

See, also, 149 Miss. 198, 115 So. 342.

Judgment affirmed.

I. L. Sheffield, for appellant, and James W. Cassedy, Jr., Assistant Attorney-General, for the state.

OPINION

ETHRIDGE, P. J.

Ed Wallace was indicted and convicted for having in his possession a still, and, from said conviction, he appeals to this court.

The evidence introduced against the defendant was objected to on the ground that there was no search warrant served upon him, and that therefore the evidence obtained was unlawful.

It appears that a party who owned the timber growing upon the lands of Wallace was on said lands, looking after his timber interest, and came upon a still located thereon, and thereupon reported that fact to the deputy sheriff, who, in turn, reported it to the sheriff; that shortly thereafter the sheriff, the deputy sheriff, and this party went upon the lands in question for the purpose of making an arrest of the defendant, and found him at the still, in company with another, and they were operating it. About the time the officers and the private citizen appeared upon the scene, Wallace and his companion left the still, going in a pathway leading toward the home of Wallace. The sheriff, with his deputy and the private citizen, went around, and came upon Wallace and his companion en route to Wallace's home, threw a flash-light upon them, and attempted to arrest them, but they fled, and their arrest was averted that night.

Wallace was identified by the sheriff, the deputy, and the private citizen as being one of the parties at the still, and...