Gilmer v. State
Gilmer v. State
Opinion of the Court
Bigham Gilmer was convicted of manufacturing liquor, and the only question for determination is whether the trial judge erred in overruling his motion for a new trial containing only the general grounds.
The venue was proved. The State’s case is substantially as follows : “Just before Christmas, 1931,” Marvin Lawson, sheriff of
The defendant stated to the jury that he did not have a wagon and had to get Mr. Griffin’s wagon “to haul wood that day,” and that “he brought a little stove-wood at the house” and “there was bark lying in the back of the wagon,” and that he, defendant, did not know that the still was there, and had nothing whatever to do with it. The defendant introduced evidence to the effect that a boy had hauled wood with the defendant’s team in the wagon found at ' his barn on the day the still was found; that the defendant was working regularly at a gin; that because a bridge was down the public passed through the defendant’s barn; that there were other roads leading to the still, and that wagon tracks were seen at the still the day after it was found; that other people lived nearer the still than did the defendant; that the defendant’s pasture fence was ninety-one steps from the still, and his house 918 steps from the still; that the still did not appear to have been used in a year; and that the still was not on the defendant’s land.
Sheriff Marvin Lawson, recalled by the State, testified that when the 'defendant told him that he had been hauling wood, he, Lawson, called the defendant’s attention to the fact that the tracks in ques
Had the jury seen fit to believe the defendant’s evidence, they most likely would have acquitted him, but evidently they accepted as true the evidence introduced by the State; and this court is of the opinion that the jury had the right to conclude that the proved facts excluded every reasonable hypothesis save that of the guilt of the accused.
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.