Bates v. State

516 S.W.2d 635, 1974 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 270
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJuly 25, 1974
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 516 S.W.2d 635 (Bates v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bates v. State, 516 S.W.2d 635, 1974 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 270 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

OPINION

MITCHELL, Judge.

The defendant Garland Bates represented by his Attorney Honorable Tyrus H. Cobb was convicted in the Circuit Court of Bedford County, on November 12, 1971 of concealing stolen property over the value of $100.00. The jury fixed the punishment at three years in the penitentiary.

After the motion for a new trial was heard and overruled by the Trial Judge [636]*636Honorable Robert J. Parkes, he pronounced judgment for not less than three years nor more than three years in the penitentiary in accordance with the verdict of the jury.

The defendant appealed and assigned the following errors:

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR
1. That the evidence preponderates against the verdict of the jury.
2. That the trial court erred in failing to allow counsel to question the sheriff “as to what disposition he intended to make of the State’s witness and alleged accomplice at the conclusion of the defendant’s trial.”
3. That the trial court erred in allowing the prosecuting attorney to question the defendant about the facts surrounding his prior convictions.
4. That the verdict is inconsistent with the evidence.

According to the State’s proof, on the night of May 20, 1971, Tommy Kessey accompanied by Carey Cotheran, burglarized the Flat Creek School house in Bedford County, Tennessee, and committed larceny by taking, stealing and carrying away from the school a television set worth $300.00, two record players worth $200.00, a typewriter worth $85.00 and a movie projector worth $600.00.

Tommy Kessey testified they took these items of stolen property out behind the Robinson addition and hid them in an old trailer out in a field.

The next night they went out and moved this stolen property down Railroad Avenue down a dirt road and hid it in a wooded area along with an air conditioner unit that come out of the trailer. The articles stolen from the Flat Creek School were all marked and tagged with labels showing they belonged to the “Flat Creek School and the Bedford County Board of Education.”

Tommy Kessey testified that on the following morning he talked with the defendant Garland Bates and asked him if he would buy the stolen property and he agreed that he would buy it. He and Garland Bates then borrowed a truck from the man who owned the building, in which the defendant Bates’ business was located.

Kessey said he and Betty Hillis Freeman, with whom he was then living as man and wife without being lawfully married, and the defendant Garland Bates in the truck, went out to the woods where he had hidden the stolen property and loaded it into the truck. . That the defendant Garland Bates drove the truck to the residence of the defendant on Depot Street. They backed the truck up to the back porch of the defendant Bates’ home where they removed the stolen goods from the truck to the defendant’s back porch. The labels were still on the stolen goods showing they belonged to the Flat Creek School and Bedford County Board of Education. That the cover was removed from the typewriter and the defendant’s wife typed some with it.

Kessey said the defendant Bates knew where the stolen property came from. That he told him, and that the defendant was supposed to have gotten it out of town that same day. That the defendant gave him $100.00 for the stolen property and offered to help him get out of town. That Bates took the typewriter, and the movie projector and was going to keep the record player. He did not want the television, but would keep it there until he could find somebody who wanted it.

Tommy Kessey testified he had lived in Bedford County, Tennessee for two years, and prior to that had worked in Indianapolis, Indiana as a construction worker. That he had served in the Military Service and had spent 11 months in Europe and a year in Vietnam where he received a number of medals including two Bronze Stars, a Vietnam Campaign Medal, two Defensive Medals, and a Good Conduct Medal.

[637]*637Kessey testified when they brought the property to the defendant Bates’ house that Bates told his wife that Kessey and Betty Hillis were moving and he was going to keep the stuff over there for them until they found another place.

Kessey admitted he had been convicted of a felony and sentenced and was in the custody of the sheriff. The sheriff had made him a trusty which allowed him some freedom outside the jail. He admitted he and Betty Hillis (Freeman) were living together unlawfully. That he had escaped from jail. That he did not know when he was going to be sent to the penitentiary.

Edwin Garland Bates, the defendant, testified he is married and has three children. That in 1959 he was convicted of burglary, on a plea of guilty and served time in the penitentiary. The defendant admitted that he hauled the articles of stolen property to his home and put them on his back porch. That he did not at anytime know the merchandise was stolen. That prior to the school break-in Tommy Kessey had borrowed $100.00 from him to rent an apartment. That the next time he heard from Kessey was when he called the defendant and asked him to borrow a truck and haul “a few sticks of furniture” for him. That the defendant had not heard of the break-in at the school. That Mr. Kessey offered him $10.00 to haul the furniture for him. That the defendant asked Mr. Kessey if the “stuff is hot.” That he said it was not. That it belonged to his mother-in-law and that she was going to sell it. That the defendant needed the money he had loaned to Mr. Kessey and he said “Fll tell you what, I haven’t got no money to throw away, and a hundred dollars is a hundred dollars, and I’m going to keep this stuff until you pay me my money.” The defendant Bates said that he did not try to conceal the merchandise in any way. That everyone that came to his house entered by the back porch.

The defendant Garland Bates testified that Betty Hillis (Freeman) worked for him but he fired her because he caught her stealing money.

That Officers Herman and Milton Sanders came and talked to him and told him a television and some musical instruments had been stolen. They did not say anything about record players nor air conditioners nor Tommy Kessey so he did not connect that with the stuff he had. That the sheriff came to see him on three different occasions. They just told him a television and musical instruments were missing and to be on the watch out for it. That somebody might come around trying to sell it. On Friday or Saturday night the Sheriff told him “Tommy Kessey said that he left some stuff here at your place” and the defendant told the sheriff “Yeah, there’s some stuff on the back porch.” The defendant said he took the stuff except for the television and delivered it to the officers. That he did not see any stickers on the property.

The defendant testified the sheriff asked him “How come you didn’t tell my deputies Saturday that you had this stuff.” I said “Well, I didn’t even realize that was it, because they said a television and music instruments, and I said, ‘The only thing you said was when you said Tommy Kessey, I knowed that was it.’ ”

The defendant said they dumped all the stuff on the back porch. That he and other people used the back porch in entering his house and going in and out of his house. “You can drive straight in my porch and set right there and see everything on my porch.

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Related

State v. Taylor
346 S.E.2d 822 (West Virginia Supreme Court, 1986)
State v. McColgan
631 S.W.2d 151 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 1981)
State v. Hatchett
560 S.W.2d 627 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1978)

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Bluebook (online)
516 S.W.2d 635, 1974 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 270, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bates-v-state-tenncrimapp-1974.