Summary
In Millman v. State, Fla. 1951, 55 So.2d 713, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the holding of Creash v. State, supra. Thereafter, this Court in Stanger v. State, Fla.App. 1960, 117 So.2d 417, had occasion to apply the same requirement.
Summary of this case from Cohen v. StateOpinion
December 21, 1951.
Appeal from the Criminal Court of Record for Dade County, Ben C. Willard, J.
Pine Taylor, Miami, for appellant.
Richard W. Ervin, Atty. Gen., and Leonard Pepper, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Isadore Millman has appealed from a judgment wherein he was adjudged guilty of operating a gambling house and sentenced to pay a fine or be imprisoned in the State penitentiary. With admirable candor, the Attorney General of Florida has conceded in his brief that the evidence adduced at the trial was not sufficient to sustain the conviction. We agree with this conclusion.
It is settled in this jurisdiction that in order to convict a person of operating a gambling house "the ownership or control of the house must be proven, and then it must be proven that by the owner's knowledge and consent or direction some game or device condemned as gambling has been habitually played or carried on there." See Creash v. State, 131 Fla. 111, 179 So. 149. Such proof does not appear in the record. It follows, therefore, that the judgment and sentence appealed from must be reversed.
It is so ordered.
TERRELL, THOMAS and HOBSON, JJ., concur.