Martin v. Commonwealth
Martin v. Commonwealth
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The accused has been convicted of manufacturing ardent spirits, and is here assigning two errors.
The first assignment is that the court erred in refusing to set aside the verdict as contrary to the law and the evidence.
The testimony relied upon by the Commonwealth may be thus summarized: Three officers, having information that there was a still in that neighborhood, discovered one about three-fourths of a mile, by the roads traveled, from the house of the accused. It was not upon his land, but was easily approached from his house by a public road and an old road diverging therefrom, much traveled to a point near the still but no farther. These officers, concealed in the undergrowth, or woods, saw a man whom they all three positively identified as the accused, Martin, come to the door of the still house at about noon, or shortly thereafter. Thinking it best for their purpose to do so, they then made a detour and entered the still house about thirty minutes later. They found there two young men, Elmer Davis and Joe Davis, who attempted to escape. They arres
The accused did not testify. This bare recital is enough, as we think, to show that the court committed np error in refusing to set aside the verdict which was based thereon.
The second assignment is that the court erred in refusing to set aside the verdict because of after-discovered evidence based on certain affidavits tendered in support of that motion.
The only evidence for the accused at his trial was that tending to prove an alibi, and to show that he could not possibly have been at the still at the time stated, because on the morning of that day he had gone with his wife in an automobile to Petersburg, thirty-three miles distant, and that he had only reached his home shortly before he was arrested. He undertook to prove this alibi by the testimony of four witnesses. If the jury had believed either one of them, they would have acquitted him.
After the trial the affidavits of eleven persons to substantiate this defense were tendered as after-discovered evidence. At least four of them.are worthless for that purpose, for they are vague and fail to discredit the evidence for the Commonwealth as to his presence
Nor is it at all probable, in view of the positive identification by three witnesses for the Commonwealth and his general reputation as a violator of the prohibition law, that such evidence, even if it had been introduced, would have changed the result.
It is clear then that the trial court committed no error, and that the judgment should be affirmed.
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Charles Martin v. Commonwealth
- Status
- Published