Moore v. State

206 S.W. 683, 84 Tex. Crim. 256, 1918 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 371
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas·Decided November 20, 1918·No. No. 5140.·Published·Cited by 35 cases

Opinion

DAVIDSON, Presiding Judge.

Appellant was acquitted of theft us charged in the first count and convicted of receiving stolen property alleged in the second count. This count alleged that appellant received the property from some party to the grand jurors unknown. In order to justify this character of pleading it is necessary that it be shown that the grand jury did not know and could not have ascertained by reasonable diligence from whom the alleged stolen property was received. The evidence bearing upon this phase of the case came from the witness Spencer. He was a member of the grand jury which returned the indictment, and was secretary of that body. He says: “In ■deliberating on the evidence in that case, before the finding of the indictment, the grand jury did not ascertain the name of any person from whom Bill Moore might have or did receive the cattle with which the grand jury by this bill of indictment charged him with the theft of, subsequent to the taking of such cattle from the Jennings ranch. We used all the diligence, and from the evidence we could gather, to ascertain the name of that person; used all the evidence we could gather. I mean by that that we used all sources of evidence at hand and that we could investigate, and from that I state that I did not ascertain the *257 name of that .person, if any, from whom Bill Moore might or did receive the cattle. As to whether or not in fact I don’t know whether he did receive any from this said person or not, I will say from the information we gathered he did, yes, but we couldn’t tell who it was, we had no evidence to show who it was; nobody ever did call his name or nothing. As to us not being positive whether he did receive this stuff from this said person or not, we didn’t say that we found anyone that he had received it from.” This is the evidence in the record in regard to this matter.

There is evidence which shows at the time that appellant’s brother is supposed to have taken the property, or at the time the State relied upon to show that his brother took the property, appellant was not with him but was miles away from the scene of the supposed taking. This seems not to have been controverted. Upon his arrival at home at night the animals were in a pen at appellant’s mother’s residence, and had been placed there by his brother. The next morning appellant was requested by his brother to assist him in driving the cattle from that point to a pasture belonging to Mr. James, a number of miles away, Mr. James being one of the alleged owners. Complying with this request appellant assisted his brother in driving these cattle to Mr. James’ ranch, where they were put in a pen or corral, and where they remained for some time. There is evidence also showing that the cattle were driven to the James ranch to be delivered to Hube Johnson, who was foreman for Mr. James on this ranch. Johnson at the time was.in Kansas City, Mo., with a shipment of cattle belonging to himself and Mr. James. The cattle were unbranded. Two of them, however were marked. A witness testified he assisted later in changing the marks on these two cattle at the James ranch. Appellant seems to have been present when the marks on the cattle were changed.

The State’s case, therefore, is one of circumstantial evidence. The evidence for the defendant is positive that he was not connected with taking the cattle, and that the cattle had been placed in a pen by his brother in appellant’s absence. This testimony is mentioned because it hears upon the question of the action of the grand jury in failing to charge the name of the party from whom the property was received, if stolen, and also upon the fact of a fraudulent receiving from his brother, if the facts should be sufficient to constitute that offense as well as upon the charge of the court. The jury found that appellant was not present at the taking by acquitting him of theft. In this condition of the record the trial jury must have found that because appellant assisted his brother in driving the cattle he was guilty of receiving them. The grand jury must have known, under the facts of this record, at the time of finding the indictment, of appellant’s connection with his brother in driving the cattle, .because the State’s case is based upon those facts, and this seems to be also true in connection with the testimony of Spencer. The State having alleged that *258 the property was received from some party to the grand jurors unknown, it is necessary to prove this, and to do so they introduced the witness Spencer, whose testimony has been given. The jury should have been instructed that if the grand jury knew or could have known by reasonable diligence from whom the cattle were received, they should acquit. Under that theory, if they knew or could have known, the evidence would not have sustained the allegation that they were received from some unknown person. Submitting the issue of receiving the stolen property the court thus instructed the jury:

“You are further charged that if you find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the red, bald-face Hereford calf was stolen, but you have a reasonable doubt as to whether the defendant stole the said red, bald-face Hereford calf, you will acquit the defendant of the theft of said red, bald-face Hereford calf; but if you find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the said red, bald-face Hereford calf was stolen, and you find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant received said red, bald-face Hereford calf after it was so stolen (if you find it was stolen), and that at the time he received said red, bald-face Hereford calf (if you find he did receive it), that the defendant knew that said red, bald-face Hereford calf was stolen, or that the defendant concealed said red, bald-fáce Hereford calf, knowing it to be stolen, you will find the defendant guilty- of receiving stolen property, and assess his punishment at confinement in'the penitentiary for not less than two nor more than four years.”

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Moore v. State, 206 S.W. 683, 84 Tex. Crim. 256, 1918 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 371 (Tex. 1918).

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