Case ID: sw_259/html/1087-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "MORROW, P. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

LEWIS v. STATE.
    (No. 8225.)
    (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
    March 26, 1924.)
    Intoxicating liquors ©=>219 — Indictment for unlawful sale not naming purchaser held defective.
    An indictment charging defendant with unlawful sale of intoxicating liquor, which failed to name the purchaser or state excuse for absence of such averment, was defective within Code Cr. Proc. 1911, art. 464, and prosecution based thereon should be dismissed.
    Appeal from District Court, Jasper County; Y. H. Start, Judge.
    Jerry Lewis was convicted of the unlawful sale of intoxicating liquor, and he appeals.
    Reversed, and prosecution dismissed.
    J. B. Dorse, of Newton, and G. E. Richardson, of Jasper, for appellant.
    Tom Garrard, State’s Atty., and Grover C. Morris, Asst. State’s Atty., both of Austin, for the State.
   MORROW, P. J.

The conviction is for the unlawful sale of intoxicating liquor; punishment fixed at confinement in the penitentiary for one year.

The indictment charges that the appellant ‘‘did then and there unlawfully sell spirituous, vinuous and malt liquor capable of producing intoxication.” It fails to name the purchaser or to state any excuse for the absence of such an averment. The statute demands in express terms that such an indictment contain the name of the purchaser. C. C. P. art. 464. Many decisions are to the same effect. Alexander v. State, 29 Tex. 496; Dixon v. State, 21 Tex. App. 517, 1 S. W. 448; Branch’s Ann. Tex. P. C. § 1224, subd. 7; Fisher v. State, 81 Tex. Cr. R. 568, 197 S. W. 189.

The judgment is reversed, and the prosecution ordered dismissed.