Trissell v. State
Trissell v. State
Opinion of the Court
The conviction is for the offense of bigamy. The punishment assessed is confinement in the state penitentiary for a term of three years.
The indictment alleges in substance that appellant married one, Dorthy Faye Yowell on December 7, 1952, while having at such time a wife, Edith Trissell, whom he had previously married on October 17, 1948.
The state proved by the county clerk of Wheeler County the issuance of a marriage license to the appellant and his wife, Edith Trissell, and their marriage. It also proved the purchase of a license to marry, as well as the marriage, to Dorthy Faye Yowell by appellant on December 7, 1952, in Collingsworth County.
There was no effort of any kind to disprove any of the matters alleged in the indictment. The only defense of any kind offered by the appellant was that at the time of the marriage he was in a dazed condition and did not remember a thing about having entered into the second marriage.
Appellant made an application for a continuance in which
Appellant presented a motion for an instructed verdict after the state had rested its original case because, among other things, it was not shown that Edith Trissell, the appellant’s first wife, was living at the time of the second marriage. At the request of the state the cause was reopened and no further proceedings were had save that the state offered proof to the effect that the appellant’s first wife was living at the time of the second marriage.
The court properly charged the jury that if the defendant at the time of the marriage with Dorthy Faye Yowell was laboring under such defective reasoning from a disease or condition of the mind as not to know the nature or quality of the act he was doing, or, if he did know, that he did not know at that time that he was doing wrong, that is, he did not know the difference
Appellant offered no defense to the act committed except the fact that he claimed to have been dazed and had a peculiar look out of his eyes and had a headache. He denied any knowledge about the time that this second marriage occurred. He also denied ever remembering seeing the parties by whom he was identified as having been married the second time in Collingsworth County. We think his only defense was properly submitted to the jury, and their verdict is amply supported by the evidence introduced on the trial.
Under these circumstances we think this cause has been correctly tried, and the judgment is therefore affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.