Case ID: miss_74/html/0727-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Stockdale, J.,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Dallas Wiley v. State of Mississippi.
    1. Criminal Law. Misdemeanor. Aiding or assisting.
    
    Every person who aids in the commission of a misdemeanor is a principal.
    2. Same. Selling intoxicating liquors.
    
    A party to the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors, though he be acting for another in making the sale, is guilty of the illegal sale.
    From the circuit court of Yalobusha county, second district.
    Hon. Z. M. Stephens, Judge.
    The facts are stated in the opinion.
    
      Blount dé Stone, for appellant.
    The facts proved do not show that Wiley sold the whisky; they rather show, or tend to show, that he acted as the purchaser’s agent, to buy whisky for him, or as the agent of an unknown seller. Appellant was not indicted for acting as the purchaser’s agent, or for making the sale as the seller’s agent. We have a statute applicable to agency in liquor selling, but the indictment is not under such statute.
    Surely if appellant acted.as the purchaser’s agent, he is not guilty under the present indictment; and, if he acted without collusion with, a liquor dealer (and the evidence does not tend to show collusion), he is not a liquor dealer himself.
    
      Wiley W. Wash, attorney-general, for appellee.
    The testimony of J. P. Bartlett shows that, in the city of Water Yalley, shortly after daylight he went to appellant’s house, having heard that whisky could be gotten from him. Appellant was not there, but, as witness came back, he met him near the Oak Hall Hotel and asked him if he could let him have a pint of whisky. Dallas said he thought he could. Witness then gave him a half dollar, and appellant went and got a pint of’ whisky and “ fetched” it to him. Witness told him he wanted whisky, gave him a half dollar, and appellant was gone but a few minutes when he brought back the whisky to witness in a black bottle. This testimony is undisputed, and makes out a clear case of guilt.
    The law is that in misdemeanors there can be no accessories, aiders, or abetters — all are principals. Williams v. State, 12 Smed. & M., 58.
   Stockdale, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

Dallas Wiley was convicted, for unlawfully selling whisky, in the circuit court of Yalobusha county,-on the fifteenth day of March, 1896, and sentenced to pay a fine of $50 and to be imprisoned sixty days, and appealed from that sentence.

It appears from the testimony that one Wm. Bartlett met appellant in Water Yalley, and asked if he, Wiley, could get him, Bartlett, some whisky, to which he replied he thought he could. Bartlett gave Wiley fifty cents, and Wiley went off, was gone a few minutes, and came back and delivered to Bartlett a bottle of whisky. These facts show Dallas Wiley to have been a party to the illegal act of selling whisky unlawfully. No matter whether it was his own or another’s whisky, all who aid in the commission of a misdemeanor are principals. Bech v. State, 69 Miss., 217.

The judgment of the court below is affirmed.