Smith v. State

584 S.W.2d 811, 1979 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 268
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedFebruary 1, 1979
StatusPublished
Cited by60 cases

This text of 584 S.W.2d 811 (Smith 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
Smith v. State, 584 S.W.2d 811, 1979 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 268 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinion

OPINION

TATUM, Judge.

Both the State and defendant made separate appeals which were consolidated by the court. The defendant, Odell Smith, appealed his conviction for receiving stolen property under the value of $100 with punishment fixed at 2 to 5 years imprisonment. The State appealed from the trial judge’s refusing to allow the State to proceed at trial with the habitual criminal count in the indictment. The concealing stolen property conviction is affirmed and the trial court’s judgment dismissing the habitual criminal count of the indictment is reversed.

The defendant’s only assignment of error is that the evidence preponderates in favor of his innocence. No Bill of Exceptions was filed and the appellant concedes “There is no error committed by the trial court which appellant can cite to reverse the judgment of the trial court.” In the absence of a Bill of Exceptions, we must conclusively presume that the evidence was sufficient to support the judgment below. Hudson v. State, 534 S.W.2d 322 (Tenn.Cr.App.1975); Aren dall v. State, 509 S.W.2d 838 (Tenn.Cr.App.1974); Francis v. State, 498 S.W.2d 107 (Tenn.Cr.App.1973). The judgment of conviction for concealing stolen property is affirmed.

We shall now address the State’s appeal. The indictment charged the defendant with second-degree burglary, larceny, receiving and concealing stolen property, and being an habitual criminal. When the jury found the defendant guilty of receiving stolen property under the value of $100, the trial court refused to allow the State to proceed on the habitual criminal charge on the ground that this conviction was not a specified felony under T.C.A. § 40-2801 et seq., and therefore, was not a “triggering offense” for enhancement of punishment under the Habitual Criminal Statute. The trial judge held that the offense of receiving stolen property under the value of $100 is the same grade of offense as petit larceny *813 and that since petit larceny is expressly excluded in T.C.A. § 40-2801 as an offense to be considered in the definition of habitual criminals, it cannot be a triggering offense under T.C.A. §§ 40-2801 and 40-2803. We therefore have two questions of first impression before us: (1) does the express exclusion of petit larceny as a prescribed offense in T.C.A. § 40-2801 also exclude the offense of receiving stolen property under the value of $100, and (2) even if question (1) is answered in the affirmative, is petit larceny excluded as a “triggering offense” by T.C.A. §§ 40-2802 and 40-2803. We answer both of these questions in the negative.

In deciding the first question, we must carefully study the language of T.C.A. § 40-2801:

40-2801. Persons defined as habitual criminals. — Any person who has either been three (3) times convicted within this state of felonies, not less than two (2) of which are among those specified in §§ 39-604, 39-605, 39-609, 39-610, 39-3708, 40-2712, 52-1432(a)(l)(A) or were for a crime punishable by death under existing law, but for which the death penalty was not inflicted, or who has been three (3) times convicted under the laws of any other state, government or country of crimes, not less than two (2) of which, if they had been committed in this state, would have been among those specified in said §§ 39-604, 39-605, 39-609, 39-610, 39-3708, 40-2712, 52-1432(aXl)(A) or would have been punishable by death under existing laws, but for which the death penalty was not inflicted, shall be considered, for the purposes of this chapter, and is declared to be an habitual criminal, provided that petit larceny shall not be counted as one of such three (3) convictions, but is expressly excluded ; and provided, further, that each of such three (3) convictions shall be for separate offenses, committed at different times, and on separate occasions. [Emphasis supplied.]

T.C.A. § 40-2712, referred to in § 40-2801, is the infamy statute; it designates the following crimes as infamous: abusing a female child, arson and felonious burning, bigamy, burglary, .felonious breaking and entering a dwelling house, felonious breaking into a business house, outhouse other than a dwelling house, bribery, buggery, counterfeiting, violating any of the laws to suppress the same, forgery, incest, larceny, horse stealing, perjury, robbery, receiving stolen property, rape, sodomy, stealing bills of exchange or other valuable papers, subornation of perjury, and destroying a will. It is noted that larceny and receiving stolen property are referred to separately and treated as separate crimes.

In the recent case of Evans v. State, 571 S.W.2d 283, 286 (Tenn.1978), our Supreme Court, in construing T.C.A. § 40-2712 and § 40-2801 said:

“Larceny,” without further qualification, is a general term encompassing all of the statutory forms of larceny. See People v. Crane, 356 Ill. 276, 190 N.E. 355 (1934); State v. Cabbell, 252 N.W.2d 451 (Iowa 1977). It is apparent from the language of T.C.A. § 40-2801 that the legislature understood the term’s use in T.C.A. § 40-2712 to be in this general sense, for after incorporating by reference “larceny” as used in that statute as one of the specified crimes under the habitual criminal act, they expressly excluded petit larceny from that category. Such a proviso would have been unnecessary had they not understood “larceny” as used in T.C.A. § 40-2712 to include all of the statutory forms of that crime. Thus, a conviction for any of these offenses — with the express exception of petit larceny — may serve as one of the specified offenses for the purpose of establishing a defendant’s status as an habitual criminal, and the trial judge’s instruction to the jury in this case to the effect that the petitioner’s conviction for larceny from the person could be employed for that purpose were correct.

The Legislature did not choose to exclude the lesser degrees of forgery or receiving stolen property, which offenses are punishable as petit larceny. It is apparent from *814

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
584 S.W.2d 811, 1979 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 268, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-state-tenncrimapp-1979.