Cook v. State

174 S.E. 195, 49 Ga. App. 86, 1934 Ga. App. LEXIS 271
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedApril 6, 1934
Docket23469
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 174 S.E. 195 (Cook v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cook v. State, 174 S.E. 195, 49 Ga. App. 86, 1934 Ga. App. LEXIS 271 (Ga. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

MacIntyre, J.

The indictment in this case charges that on December 11, 1932, in Berrien county, Georgia, Horace Cook, Johnnie Ball, and Moses Field burglarized the storehouse of Miller Hardware & Furniture Company. Horace Cook was convicted of the offense charged, and his exception is to the judgment overruling his motion for a new trial.

The State introduced evidence sufficient to show that the alleged burglary was committed, and that the defendant, Horace Cook, was in the recent possession of some of the property taken from the storehouse when it was burglarized. It being the exclusive province of the jury to pass upon the credibility of the witnesses, the weight of the evidence, the defendant’s attempted explanation of his innocent possession of the stolen property, and the effect of such possession, we are constrained to overrule the general grounds of the motion for a new trial. “Recent possession, not satisfactorily explained, of goods stolen from the house at the time the alleged burglary was committed, may be sufficient as a basis of conviction of burglary, where the burglary has been established and the jury believe from all the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused is the guilty party.” Mangham v. State, 87 Ga. 549 (13 S. E. 558).

Special ground 1 of the motion for a new trial avers that the court erred in refusing to strike from the record” the testimony of the witness Miller that Miller Hardware & Furniture Company [87]*87was a corporation, on the ground that the charter was the highest and best evidence of that fact. It appears from this ground that the testimony in question had been admitted without objection; that the defendant had the opening and concluding argument to the jury; and that the motion to rule out the testimony was made after both sides had closed, and after one of defendant’s counsel had concluded his argument to the jury. Under these circumstances, we hold that the court did not err in refusing to rule out the testimony in question.

Special ground 2 complains of the following excerpt from the charge of the court: “I charge you in this connection that the recent possession of goods under such circumstances would raise the presumption of guilt of the defendant, and unless such recent possession be satisfactorily explained, the burden being on the defendant to make such explanation, would authorize you to identify the defendant as the guilty party and convict him.” It is urged that this charge is erroneous, (a) “because recent possession of stolen goods is not of itself sufficient to authorize a conviction,” and (b) “because recent possession of stolen.goods, of and within itself, does not place the burden upon the defendant to make a satisfactory explanation of such possession.” After having fully defined the offense of burglary, the court instructed the jury as follows: “I charge you further that if you find, in considering the evidence and the defendant’s statement in this case, that the property, or any part of it, alleged and proven to have been taken from the storehouse referred to in the indictment was found recently thereafter in the possession of the defendant, you may consider that circumstance and give to it such weight as you see proper on the question as whether it establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that he was the person who broke and entered the house, if you find that the house was broken and entered.” It is so evident, from the wording of the charge excepted to, that it is a part of the foregoing charge, which immediately precedes it, that we are bound to consider the two together; and when this is done, no argument is necessary to show that the charge complained of is not subject to the assignments of error stated. In connection with this ground, it may not be amiss to state that in Lewis v. State, 120 Ga. 508 (48 S. E. 227), the court held the following charge did require the grant of a new trial: “Where a burglary has been committed, and money, [88]*88goods, or other property which was in the house at the time of the burglary is soon thereafter found in the possession of a person who is unable to account for his possession; it raises a presumption of his guilt, and the jury would be authorized to find a verdict of guilty.” Some confusion has arisen, even among the lawyers, from the use by the court of the expression, "the law raises a presumption from recent possession that” the defendant "committed the offense,” which is held erroneous (Griffin v. State, 86 Ga. 257 (12 S. E. 409)), and the expression, which seems to be used in contradistinction to the other, "such recent possession raises a presumption of his guilt,” which has been held not erroneous. Holliday v. State, 23 Ga. App. 400 (98 S. E. 386). We think it more likely that jurors will be confused by this latter expression than those skilled in the law. Where a judge charges that the defendant enters upon the trial of the case with a presumption of innocence in his favor, and then, later on, charges that recent possession raises a presumption of the defendant’s guilt, this, while not erroneous under some of the decisions, it seems to us might be confusing to the jury. We therefore think it would be clearer to the jury if the judge avoided the word presumption in this latter connection and used some such expression as '’the law permits the jury to infer guilt from the fact of recent possession unaccounted for,” thus bringing out the idea that such possession authorizes a verdict of guilty but does not require it. Lewis v. State, Holliday v. State, supra, and cit.; Morris v. State, 47 Ga. App. 792 (171 S. E. 555). We realize that the distinction drawn by our courts is that one is a presumption of law and the other a presumption of fact. However, the difference between a presumption of law and a presumption of fact is so marked and important that it is unfortunate they do not have two more distinctive names. As to objection (b) in ground 2, we hold that it is not meritorious, "inasmuch as the person having the possession best knows how his possession did in fact originate, and has the best means of accounting for it,” and "it is reasonable and proper that the burden of so doing should rest upon him.” Cornwall v. State, 91 Ga. 277, 282 (18 S. E. 154); Jones v. State, 105 Ga. 649, 650 (31 S. E. 574).

The last special ground is based upon the alleged newly discovered evidence of two witnesses. The indictment avers that the .burglary was committed on December 11, 1932, in Nashville, Ber[89]*89xien. county, Georgia, and K. M. Miller testified that the store was burglarized “on or about December 11 or 12, on Saturday night,” and that he “learned Sunday morning between midnight and day that the store had been broken open.” Counsel for the defendant state in their brief that the defendant “was incarcerated in jail in Nashville . . more than one hundred miles from his home,” and that “he was not near enough to confer with his relatives and friends, and, in all probability, did not know of such evidence until after he was tried.” The witness, Tom Frazier, testified that he saw the defendant, “two or three days” before he heard of the burglary, in a Chevrolet automobile near the scene of the crime. P. H. Goodwin, the first witness relied upon to furnish newly discovered evidence, testified that on December 16, 1932, he saw the defendant in Lyons, Toombs county, Georgia, in a Chevrolet automobile owned by defendant’s mother, Mary Cook.

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Bluebook (online)
174 S.E. 195, 49 Ga. App. 86, 1934 Ga. App. LEXIS 271, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cook-v-state-gactapp-1934.