Lowe v. State

Citations

• 4 Tex. Ct. App. 34

Syllabus

<p>1. Disorderly House.—Indictment charged that the accused, “on the 20th day of April, A. D. 1877, in Parker County, in the state of Texas, did keep a house for the purpose of public prostitution, and as a common resort for prostitutes and vagabonds, and which was then and there a disorderly house, contrary,” etc. Held, a good indictment for keeping a disorderly house.</p> <p>2. Former Acquittal or Conviction. — To sustain either of these defenses the plea must allege, and the evidence show, that the former prosecution was for the same offense as that on trial. If the evidence necessary to support the second indictment would have sustained the first, an acquittal or a conviction under the first will, in general, constitute a defense against the second.</p> <p>3. Same — Case Stated. — To an indictment for keeping a disorderly house in Parker County, on April 20, 1877, the accused pleaded former acquittal, and as part of her plea she exhibited a judgment acquitting her of an information filed against her March 30, 1877, and which charged her with keeping a disorderly house, in the same county, on March 24, 1877. Held, that the plea itself shows that the former offense was not the same as the one on trial, and that the court below did not err in overruling the plea, or in excluding evidence in support of it, or in declining to submit it as an issue for the jury.</p> <p>4. Evidence. — At a trial for keeping a disorderly house, it was not error to allow the State to prove that the accused rented the house several months prior to the time laid in the indictment, and had occupied it ever since she rented it. The evidence was competent to prove that she was the keeper of the establishment.</p>