Ward v State

Ward v State
1913 OK CR 15
128 P. 1105
8 Okl.Cr. 525
Case Number: No. A-1482
Decided: 01/18/1913
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals

(Syllabus by the Court.)

INTOXICATING LIQUORS Admissibility of Evidence Internal Revenue License.

Appeal from Oklahoma County Court; John W. Hayson, Judge.

Gus Ward was convicted of violating the prohibitory law, and appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Giddings & Giddings,

Smith C. Matson

FURMAN, J. Appellant was prosecuted under the name of Gus Ward. There was no evidence that his name was not as

Page 526

charged in the information. The presumption of law therefore is that Gus was the given name of appellant.

Upon the trial of this cause the state introduced in evidence a certified copy of a United States internal revenue license issued to J.G. Ward to conduct the business of retail liquor dealer in the city of Oklahoma. To the introduction of this evidence counsel for appellant objected and excepted to the action of the court in overruling the same. There was no testimony that Gus Ward and J.G. Ward were one and the same person, or that Gus Ward was in any manner connected with J.G. Ward. In the absence of such testimony this certificate was clearly inadmissible. As it was material, and directly involved a vital question in this case, its admissibility in evidence was reversible error.