Brown

By the indictment upon which he was convicted, appellant was charged in the first count with the unlawful possession and in the second count with the unlawful transportation of intoxicating liquor. It was-also approximately alleged that prior to the commission of these offenses, to wit, on December 14, 1927, he had been adjudged guilty of unlawful possession.

It appearing that the former conviction was upon indictment which charged not only unlawful possession but other offenses against the National Prohibition Act, to avoid prejudice to defendant, the district attorney offered to prove the conviction upon the possession charge alone by the oral testimony of the clerk having custody of the record, but counsel for defendant objected upon the ground that the record was the best evidence. In defending his offer the district attorney explained that he desired to avoid putting before the jury the conviction upon the other counts which had no relevancy, but defendant insisted upon his objection. Whereupon the court sustained it with the clear and positive statement to the jurors that they should in no wise be influenced by the statement of the district attorney that the former…