Case ID: ga-app_36/html/0626-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Bboyles, C. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

17852.
    Simmons v. The State.
    Decided April 12, 1927.
    Making liquor; from Chattooga superior court — Judge Maddox. December 18, 1926.
    According to the evidence, the defendant was discovered by officers at a still which “was just being put up,” or was “about ready for operation,” and he ran off. There was no fire in the furnace under the still. Seven barrels of fermented beer, ready to boil, were found there. The defendant, in his statement at the trial, said that he ran “to keep from getting caught,” but that he had nothing to do with the still and knew nothing about it. It was contended on the part of the State that the defendant’s flight was a sufficient circumstance to authorize the conviction.
    
      B. E. Neal, for plaintiff in error.
    
      J. F. Kelly, solicitor-general, contra.
    Criminal Law, 17 C. J. p. 252, n. 16.
    Intoxicating Liquors, 33 C. J. p. 758, n. 80, 88; p. 774, n. 14; p. 1179, n. 69.
   Bboyles, C. J.

The accused was convicted of manufacturing intoxicating liquor. The evidence failed to establish that any whisky had been made at the distillery in question, or that the beer found there by the arresting officers was intoxicating. The verdict, therefore, was unauthorized, and the refusal to grant a new trial was error. See Walker v. State, 32 Ga. App. 18 (122 S. E. 645).

Judgment reversed.

Luke and Bloodworth, JJ., concur.