Case Name: EADS v. STATE
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1923-01-31
Citations: 252 S.W. 531
Docket Number: No. 7282
Parties: EADS v. STATE.
Judges: 
Reporter: South Western Reporter
Volume: 252
Pages: 531–533

Head Matter:
EADS v. STATE.
(No. 7282.)
(Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
Jan. 31, 1923.
Rehearing Denied June 6, 1923.)
I. Intoxicating liquors <8=^222 — Exceptions to prohibition law need not be negatived in indictment.
The exceptions to the prohibition law need not be negatived in an indictment for the unlawful manufacture of intoxicating liquor.
i>. Intoxicating liquors <9=209 — Indictment for unlawful manufacture need not allege that liquor manufactured for purposes of sale.
An indictment for the unlawful manufacture of intoxicating liquors need not allege that the liquor was manufactured for the purposes of sale.
3. Witnesses <9=337(6) — Evidence of accused testifying in own behalf of former conviction for murder held admissible as affecting his credibility.
Testimony of defendant in a criminal prosecution testifying in his own behalf as to whether he had been formerly indicted and convicted for murder is admissible as affecting the credibility of the witness.
4. Criminal law <9=595(4) — Refusal of continuance for absent witnesses where expected testimony immaterial not erroneous.
In a prosecution for the unlawful manufacture of intoxicating liquors, the refusal of a continuance for absent witnesses to shpw that accused, on the day of his arrest, had been absent from his home, and had only returned a short time prior to the arrival of the officers who arrested him, in view of the fact that the officers found liquor in the process of manufacture on the premises of accused within a short distance from his home on the day of his arrest, held not erroneous.
5. Intoxicating liquors <9=s236(19) — Evidence held sufficient to sustain conviction for unlawful manufacture.
In a prosecution for the unlawful manufacture of intoxicating liquor, evidence held sufficient to sustain a conviction.
On Motion for Rehearing.
6. Criminal law <9=603(11)— Service of process and time returned must be shown in application for continuance for absent witnesses.
In an application for continuance for absent witnesses, it is not sufficient to merely state that process for the witnesses was sued out, but it must be shown what was done with it, and when the process has been returned, arid the time when it was returned must be shown.
7. Criminal law <9=>603 (3) — Burden on one seeking continuance to show right by definite, exact, and certain averments.
The burden is upon the party seeking a continuance to show himself entitled to it by definite, exact, and certain averments.
Appeal from District Court, Collingsworth County; J. A. Nabers, Judge.
Elbert Eads was convicted of unlawfully manufacturing intoxicating liqjuor, and he appeals.
Affirmed.
Templeton & Templeton, of Wellington, for appellant.
R. G. Storey, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

Opinion:
LATTIMORE, J.
Appellant was convicted in the district court of Collingsworth county of the offense of manufacturing intoxicating liquor, and his punishment fixed at three years in the penitentiary.
Appellant moved to quash the indictment herein because it failed to negative the exceptions contained in the original Dean Law. By the terms of the amendment, to said law enacted by the Thirty-Seventh Legislature said exceptions were taken out of the section defining and creating the offense, and were placed in a separate section to themselves. This court has since held that an indictment under the present law need not negative said exceptions. Travinio v. State, 92 Tex. Cr. R. 140, 242 S. W. 242. Another contention in said motion to quash, that the indictment should have alleged that the liquor was manufactured for purposes of sale, has been decided by this court contrary to the view of appellant. Stringer v. State, 92 Tex. Cr. R. 46, 241 S. W. 159; Crowley v. State, 92 Tex. Cr. R. 103, 242 S. W. 472.
Appellant, while testifying in his own behalf, was asked by the state if he had been formerly indicted and convicted for murder. The action of the court in overruling his objection to this question presents no error. Such testimony is admitted as affecting the credibility of the witness. Gass v. State (Tex. Cr. App.) 56 S. W. 73.
As we view the case, the refusal of a continuance presents no error. Ry the absent witnesses appellant states tliat he expected to show that he had been absent from the county, and that on the day of his arrest he had been absent from his home,'and had only returned a short time prior to the arrival upon the scene of the officers who arrested him. In the testimony of appellant himself we find his statement that he had returned to his home some week or 10 days prior to the day of his arrest, and that he came back from Oklahoma with John Benson, with whose family appellant was jointly occupying his house at the time of his arrest. The officers found liquor in process of manufacture upon appellant's premises in a dugout within a short distance of appellant's home on the day of said arrest, and the fact that he may have been away from his home for some weeks prior to his return thereto, a week or 10 days before the arrest, would not seem to us to be material to his defense.
The sufficiency of the testimony to support the conviction is assailed. Appellant owned land in a prairie section of the state. A two-room house, a windmill, a lot inclosed with barbed wire and planks, within which lot was a slat crib and a dugout whose roof was almost, if not quite, on a level with the surface of the ground, were substantially the improvements on said place as reflected by this record. A party of officers, upon some information which does not appear that something wrong was going on at said place, went to the premises in' an automobile. As they approached the house they were watching the lot. They saw no person. They stopped their car in front of the house, got out, and went around the corner of the residence, and started toward the lot. They met John Benson coming from the direction of the dugout, and turned him back with them. One of said officers further testified that aft-
er meeting Benson he sfcw appellant come out of said dugout. Others of said officers testified that they saw appellant in the act of getting over the fence which inclosed the lot in which the dugout was situated. Other testimony indicated his moving away in a stooping position. When arrested he was behind the crib, apparently attending a call of nature. Investigation of the dugout 'disclosed that it contained several barrels of mash, a copper boiler in which mash was boiling and bubbling, and from which a pipe led through a barrel of water, from the end of which pipe whisky was dripping into a fruit jar. The pipe and boiler were too hot to be handled. No other persons were found on the premises nor in the vicinity of said still except the wife of Benson, who was in bed, having recently been confined with childbirth, and a Mrs. Brothers, who was doing some washing. Without attempting to further analyze the' probative force of the testimony above stated, it is our conclusion that it sufficiently supported the verdict of the jury in finding appellant guilty of the manufacture of such intoxicating liquor.
Finding no error in the record, the judgment will be affirmed.
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