Case ID: sw_163/html/0709-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "HARPER, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

MORRIS v. STATE.
    (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
    Feb. 4, 1914.)
    1. Criminal Law (§ 254) — Trial—Conclusions of Fact and Law.
    Where a criminal prosecution is tried by the court without a jury, the court is not authorized to file conclusions of fact and law, as in a civil action.
    ' [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Criminal Law, Cent. Dig. .§§ 537, 538, 543; Dec. Dig. § 254.]
    2. Wísapons (§’13) — Unlawful Carrying op Weapons.
    Where accused was carrying a pistol to his home from the place where it had been repaired, the facts that he accidentally discharged it, and that on his journey home he retraced his steps for a short distance to make a small purchase, will not render him guilty of the offense of unlawfully carrying a pistol.
    [Ed. Note. — For other eases, see Weapons, Cent. Dig. §§ 16, 17; Dec. Dig. § 13.]
    Appeal from Donley County Court; J. G. Killougk, Judge.
    Albert Morris was convicted of unlawfully carrying a pistol, and he appeals.
    Reversed and remanded.
    
      E. A. Simpson, of Clarendon, for appellant. O. E. Lane, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
    
      
      For other cases see same topic and section NUMBER in Dec. Dig. & Am. Dig. Key-No. Series & Rep’r Indexes
    
   HARPER, J.

Appellant was prosecuted and convicted of the offense of unlawfully carrying a pistol. The case was tried before the court without a jury, and there accompanies the record both a statement of facts and “conclusions of fact and law” filed by the court. The conclusions of fact and law are not authorized to be filed by law in criminal eases, but we have read these conclusions, because they furnish us the basis upon which the court adjudged appellant guilty.

The court finds that appellant was working for the cold storage company, and carried his pistol from his home to the place he was at work to repair it; that he left it and went to a show, and after returning from the show he went to the cold storage plant and got the pistol for the purpose of carrying it to his home; that he started home, but, finding he had no tobacco, he retraced his steps two blocks, got the tobacco, and again started home, and while on the way there, while “monkeying” with the pistol, he accidentally discharged it. The court Adjudged him guilty, on the ground that he retraced his steps two blocks, thus deviating from his journey to that extent, and because he fired the pistol accidentally, as he had no right to be “monkeying” with it.

The slight deviation in retracing his steps two blocks to purchase tobacco, and that it was accidentally discharged in the manner described by the witness, would not constitute the offense of unlawfully carrying a pistol, if he in fact was carrying it from the place where it had been repaired to his home.

Reversed and remanded.