Citation Numbers: 207 Ky. 425
Judges: Pson, Sam
Filed Date: 2/17/1925
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/24/2022
Opinion of the Court by
Affirming.
The question presented is whether the evidence introduced by the Commonwealth was sufficient to carry the case to the jury and sustain a verdict of guilty on a charge of possessing intoxicating liquors, in violation of law.
Appellant Smith and one .Saulsberry were jointly indicted, tried and convicted, but Smith alone appeals.
The two men were operating a pool room and soft drink stand in Owensboro. There was a stairway from this room to a second story. "When the officers, with a search warrant, arrived to search the place appellant Smith was in charge downstairs. He had a key to the door leading upstairs. No intoxicants were found in the pool room. However, when appellant opened the door to the upstairs and the officers went up they found a gang of colored men up there with Saulsberry playing craps and cards, and a jug of whiskey on ice in a refrigerator. No one could tell whether the place belonged to Saulsberry and Smith or to one or the other of them. They had been jointly running it for a long time. Appellant testified for himself that he was merely a clerk or
The evidence of appellant Smith’s connection with the place and the fact that he had a key to the room in which the whiskey was kept made his guilt a question for the jury, and warranted the jury in concluding that he jointly possessed liquor with Saulsberry.
'The court properly submitted the question of fact to the jury.
Judgment affirmed.