Opinion
32835.
DECIDED APRIL 21, 1950.
Maintaining scheme for hazarding money; from Savannah City Court — Judge Heery. October 27, 1949.
Julius S. Fine, for plaintiff in error.
Andrew J. Ryan Jr., Solicitor-General, Sylvan A. Garfunkel, Herman W. Coolidge, contra.
1. "The instruction, `a confession alone, uncorroborated by any other evidence, shall not justify a conviction,' was not erroneous, misleading, or confusing, for not giving in connection therewith any rule to test the degree of corroboration, or that the jury were the judges of the sufficiency of corroboration. The above excerpt is a quotation from the last sentence of section 38-420 of the Code. This entire section was given in charge, and if additional instructions were desired, a timely and proper request therefor should have been made." Williams v. State, 199 Ga. 504 ( 34 S.E.2d 854).
2. "The purpose of section 26-6502 of the Code is `to suppress lotteries by making it an offense to maintain or carry on one, or to do any of the several acts entering into the conduct of such a business; and the statute was framed doubtless, with a view to reach all persons who might carry on, or participate in carrying on, the forbidden enterprise.' Walker v. State, 69 Ga. App. 375 ( 25 S.E.2d 587)." Jackson v. State, 71 Ga. App. 138 ( 30 S.E.2d 354).
3. The defendant was found guilty of participating in a lottery known as the "bolita" game, and the jury was authorized to find that the bolita tickets and the money found in the presence of the defendant. Raymond Huff, and his codefendant, Willie Mae Figures, in the front room of a house in Chatham County, Georgia, were a part of the paraphernalia used in the playing of the bolita game as described in the evidence; that some of the bolita tickets and some of the money found in the presence of the defendant Huff and his codefendant Figures in in the room were in the actual physical possession of the defendant; that none of the tickets, which the codefendant claimed were hers, were actually found on her person; and that the defendant participated in the playing of this game. Britton v. State, 69 Ga. App. 868 ( 27 S.E.2d 100). The evidence authorized the verdict.
Judgment affirmed. Gardner and Townsend, JJ., concur.
DECIDED APRIL 21, 1950.
The jury was authorized to find: that the officer went to a house at 441 Montgomery Street, Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia; that Willie Mae Figures and Raymond Huff, the defendant were in the front room thereof; that the officer found 136 bolita tickets in the dresser and $46.36 in change; that Willie Mae Figures said, in the presence of the defendant, that the bolita tickets were all her property; that there was in her pocketbook on the dresser in her room "quite a bit of quarters, halves, nickels, and dimes"; that she also said the money was hers; that some of the tickets were dated the day of the raid and some were old ones; that Willie Mae Figures said that she was in financial straits and had just started to sell a few tickets and that the tickets were hers; that after the officer got in the room of such house he found 94 tickets on Raymond Huff and also more than $39.30 in his pocket in cash; the tickets were ten-cent tickets, the balance were torn out; that these 94 tickets were all that were left in a book which had contained 1000 tickets. The defendant stated to the jury: "My name is Raymond Huff, and I want to say he didn't see me throw this down. I had them in my pocket, and I told him that I bought them. He took them out of my pocket. I didn't tell him I was selling them for Willie Mae Figures. I told him I bought them, and it was 5¢ tickets, and it was $4.75 worth that I bought. I put each number on the 350. I have never been in anything in my life, in no trouble."