Phenix v. State

61 So. 2d 392, 216 Miss. 1, 11 Adv. S. 16, 1952 Miss. LEXIS 608
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 8, 1952
DocketNo. 38549
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 61 So. 2d 392 (Phenix v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Phenix v. State, 61 So. 2d 392, 216 Miss. 1, 11 Adv. S. 16, 1952 Miss. LEXIS 608 (Mich. 1952).

Opinion

Roberds, P. J.

Robert Phenix, the appellant, and Roy Walker Mabe were jointly indicted for grand larceny in the stealing of $570, the property of Joe Fergnson. Mabe was acquitted; Phenix was found guilty, was sentenced to two years and two days in the state penitentiary, and he appeals.

He urges here four errors he says were committed by the lower court. First, that he was entitled to a directed verdict; second, if not, that the verdict was against the great weight of the evidence; third, that a fatal variance existed between the allegations of the indictment and the proof as to the ownership of the money; and, fourth, that defendant, who had no attorney at the trial, was entitled to have one appointed by the court to defend him.

We will deal with these contentions in the order stated. The first two will be considered together. The principal ground of the first of the two is that the proof fails to show that appellant was the person who stole the money. The testimony as to that will be set out along with the other evidence applicable to the second contention.

Joe Ferguson, the prosecuting witness, testified that in December, 1951, he was a resident of Marion, ill.; that he had a wife and eight children; that he was the driver of a truck and engaged in buying lumber in several states, including Mississippi, and transporting it to and selling it in other states; that he first met Phenix and Mabe on Saturday, December 15, 1951, in Hazlehurst, Mississippi ; that he saw them again at a night club in that city the next night, which was Sunday; that he and Mabe left that club and went to another; in about two hours they [4]*4came back to tbe first club; that the three of them then went to the Hazel Hotel, where all of them were registered and staying, Mabe and Phenix occupying a room adjoining the one occupied by the witness; that Phenix came into the room of the witness; that they had all been drinking; that witness, fully dressed, laid down across his bed and went to sleep. That was about one o ’clock; that prior to that time he had gotten a check cashed; had paid out part of the money for a load of lumber, and had remaining upon his person $570 and “some odd dollars”; that this consisted of six or eight fifty dollar bills; four five dollar bills and the balance was in twenty dollar bills. He had this money in his vest pocket and his billfold in his pocket when he went to sleep; that about four o’clock he awakened, and discovered the money had been taken from his vest pocket and his billfold; that he immediately went to the room occupied by Mabe and Phenix and they were gone; that one bed had the appearance that some one had lain thereon but the other showed no indication it had been used; that he immediately called the sheriff and notified him of the theft. He told the sheriff Mabe and Phenix were traveling in a Chevrolet pickup truck, having on its side the words “Termite Pest Control”; that the sheriff immediately called a number of places in an effort to apprehend appellant and Mabe and that shortly thereafter an official of Brookhaven, Mississippi, some 21 miles from Hazlehurst, reported to the sheriff the pickup was at Brookhaven. Appellant and Mabe were arrested Monday afternoon in Montgomery, Alabama. The witness went to Montgomery with the Sheriff of Copiah County and identified the accused and Mabe. He admitted that appellant, upon or after arrest, told the officers that the money they found upon his person had been won by gambling. He also said that Phenix testified at the preliminary hearing he won it gambling with appellant in his room at the Hazel Hotel after they reached the hotel about one o’clock Monday morning. [5]*5He says that Phenix gave contradictory testimony as to how he and Mabe came into possession of the money. Witness admitted that he and Mabe gambled at one, or more, of the night clubs to which they went before'coming to the hotel; that they used his money for that purpose and won some eight to ten dollars. He said this was the first time he had gambled in five years; that he did not gamble with Phenix at any time or place.

Junior Hall testified that he lived at Brookhaven. He drives a taxicab. He knows ■ Phenix; that he first met Phenix and Mabe at the Boyal Cafe in Brookhaven about 2:20 on Monday morning, December 17, 1951. He heard them ask a soldier' if they could ride with him in his automobile to Natchez. The soldier said he would have to get some gas. They offered the soldier five dollars with which to buy gas, which the soldier refused. Witness drove to the bus station to meet an incoming bus and while he was there he saw this soldier drive by going towards Natchez. Witness drove back to the Boyal Cafe and Phenix and Mabe were standing on the sidewalk apparently waiting for the soldier to return. He told them he had seen the soldier drive away towards Natchez. They asked him if he would drive them to Jackson. He did that. The charge for that was $16. They paid him, getting a twenty dollar bill changed for that purpose. He carried them to the Greyhound Bus Station in Jackson. They told Hall they had driven to Brookhaven in a Chevrolet pickup truck. They had left this parked on the street in front of the Boyal Cafe. They asked the witness to move this vehicle from the street. He agreed to, and did, do that, parking it near the Pure Oil Service Station. This he did about 7:30 to 8:00 o’clock Monday morning. He said he had never seen Mabe and appellant before; that they told him they were going towards Mobile or Pascagoula from Jackson. They were drinking.

Julius Harper, Sheriff of Copiah County, Mississippi, testified that Ferguson called him over the telephone at [6]*6his home about 4 -.20 Monday morning, December 17, and reported to him his. money had been stolen and that he had reason to believe that Phenix and Mabe had stolen it. He said they had gone from the hotel. He described the Chevrolet truck in which they were riding. The sheriff called the police in a number of cities, reporting the crime, and about twenty minutes thereafter a policeman in Brookhaven reported that the Chevrolet truck was parked on a street in that city and that the suspects were being driven to Jackson to catch a bus. The sheriff called the Greyhound bus station at Jackson and was informed that the parties had been there, and when the agent informed them of the time of departure of the first bus, they told him he did not have anything ‘ ‘ quick enough” and they would go to the Tri-State bus station in Jackson. They left the Greyhound station. The sheriff called the Tri-State station and was informed the bus liad departed going east. Sheriff called police at Meridian, Birmingham and Montgomery. The police of Montgomery called witness about 4:30 o’clock that afternoon and reported the arrest of Phenix and Mabe. Phenix had upon his person the sum of $221 and a bus ticket from Jackson to Charlotte, North Carolina, for which he had paid $16.96. This money consisted of four fifty dollar bills, one twenty dollar bill and one one dollar bill. Mabe had in his possession $225 and a bus ticket from Jackson to Greensboro, North Carolina, which had also cost $16.96. That consisted of four fifty dollar bills, two five dollar bills and the balance was in one dollar bills. The total in the possession of both men was $446 .and the two bus tickets. They were also wearing new shirts, pants and jackets. The sheriff and Ferguson went to Montgomery, where Ferguson identified the parties as those he was with Sunday night and Monday morning and who had been registered in an adjoining room to the one he occupied at the Hazel Hotel.

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Bluebook (online)
61 So. 2d 392, 216 Miss. 1, 11 Adv. S. 16, 1952 Miss. LEXIS 608, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/phenix-v-state-miss-1952.