Tanner v. State

66 So. 2d 827, 37 Ala. App. 256, 1953 Ala. App. LEXIS 392
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 11, 1953
Docket1 Div. 620
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 66 So. 2d 827 (Tanner v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alabama Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tanner v. State, 66 So. 2d 827, 37 Ala. App. 256, 1953 Ala. App. LEXIS 392 (Ala. Ct. App. 1953).

Opinion

*260 PRICE, Judge.

The indictment charged defendant with buying, receiving, concealing, or aiding in concealing certain articles of furniture and household effects, the personal property of Mrs. F. M. Jefferies, knowing it was stolen, and not having the intent to restore it. to the owner.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty, assessing the value of the property at $100. The court sentenced defendant to a term of five years in the penitentiary. Sentence was suspended and defendant placed on probation for a period of five years.

The State contended that Mrs. Jefferies, a resident of Birmingham, owned a home in Baldwin County, which was kept closed and locked when not in use by some member of the family. Mrs. Jefferies last visited the cottage in the fall of 1948. She left the key with Mr. Reading, a neighbor. When she returned the following May, the neighbor had moved away and a large number of her household furnishings and other personal property had disappeared without her knowledge or consent. The 42 items listed in the indictment were found in and about three cottages belonging to defendant. Defendant claimed ownership of the property and denied it had been stolen.

Testimony was introduced as to each item named in the indictment. This testimony was in sharp conflict. Mrs. Jefferies and her witnesses testified the property belonged to Mrs. Jefferies. Defendant and her witness were equally positive as to Mrs. Tanner’s claim of ownership of most of said articles. Both Mrs. Jefferies and defendant gave detailed statements as to when and where they acquired the property.

Defendant insisted that two or three of the items set out in the indictment and introduced in evidence by the State, were not found at her home and she had never seen them before the trial.

Defendant contended she owned a fishing lodge consisting of a large three-story building and five cottages. She had leased the large building and was renting the cottages, except the one she lived in. She testified she had owned some of the property when she lived in Birmingham and when she bought the Lodge in 1940 from a Colonel Higdon several of the articles in controversy were acquired with the property. Other articles she had purchased at various times and places. She testified that in the fall of 1948, she purchased the table and benches-, State exhibits 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 from a stranger who came to her place with a truck load of furniture, paying him $25 for these items and a chair not in controversy. Mrs. Jefferies had previously testified the table and benches were valued at $250.

Mrs. Jefferies was questioned by defense counsel as to alleged discrepancies in her testimony at the preliminary and that given on the main trial. The State then introduced the entire transcript of her evidence at the preliminary trial.

In rebuttal the State' introduced evidence by the sheriff as to statements made by defendant the day after the property was found in her possession, which were contradictory to those made by her on the witness stand.

The evidence being in sharp conflict, the affirmative charge, requested generally and as to each item named in the indictment, was properly refused.

*261 At the conclusion of the State’s testimony the defendant moved to exclude the evidence on the grounds the State had failed to prove venue; the corpus delicti had not been established; and value of the property had not been shown. In a criminal case proof of venue is sufficient if from the facts and circumstances adduced venue can be reasonably inferred by the jury. Tinney v. State, 111 Ala. 74, 20 So. 597; Palmer v. State, 168 Ala. 124, 53 So. 283; Armstrong v. State ex rel. Embry, 249 Ala. 40, 29 So. 2d 330; Moore v. State, 30 Ala.App. 552, 9 So.2d 146.

Mrs. Jefferies testified her cottage was in Baldwin County, Alabama, and that Mrs. Tanner’s residence, where the property was found, was also in Baldwin County. This evidence was sufficient proof to support a finding by the jury that if defendant was concealing stolen property she was doing so in Baldwin County, Alabama.

As has been stated many times by the courts, in order to sustain a charge of buying, concealing, or aiding in concealing stolen property, it is necessary for the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt: (1) That the goods have been previously stolen; (2) that accused has received or concealed the goods knowing they were stolen; and (3) that she received the property, not having the intent to restore it to the owner. Kelly v. State, 17 Ala.App. 577, 88 So. 180; Moore v. State, 26 Ala.App. 607, 164 So. 761; Koonce v. State, 27 Ala. App. 46, 165 So. 601.

But it is not necessary that the corpus delicti be proved by direct evidence. It may be proven by facts and circumstances from which the jury may infer that the offense has been committed. McKee v. State, 24 Ala.App. 175, 132 So. 68; Milam v. State, 240 Ala. 314, 198 So. 863.

To sustain the charge of a felonious taking, it is not required that it be proved when, where or by whom the goods were stolen. It is sufficient if the evidence introduced affords an inference of the larceny of the goods. McKee v. State, supra; Hester v. State, 103 Ala. 83, 15 So. 857; Smith v. State, 133 Ala. 145, 31 So. 806.

The State’s evidence that the property listed in the indictment had disappeared from the home of the owner without her knowledge or consent, was sufficient to authorize the jury to infer that the goods were stolen by some person. The court properly overruled defendant’s objection to the introduction in evidence of each article of property listed in the indictment.

The guilty knowledge in the receiving or concealing of the goods may likewise be inferred from facts and circumstances, in the absence of proof of actual knowledge. Milam v. State, supra; Baker v. State, 35 Ala.App. 596, 51 So.2d 376, certiorari denied 255 Ala. 335, 51 So.2d 381.

Where the evidence is in conflict on a charge of buying, receiving, conceab ing or aiding in concealing stolen personal property, and the property has not been restored to the rightful owner by the person who received it, the question of whether the defendant intended to restore it to the owner is for the jury to determine under all the surrounding facts and circumstances. Lambrakis v. State, 29 Ala.App. 3, 191 So. 271, certiorari denied 238 Ala. 432, 191 So. 272.

“In a prosecution for receiving stolen property the possession of the property places the burden on the defendant to explain it, and his guilt may be inferred from said possession. Cofield v. State, 23 Ala.App. 269, 124 So. 250, certiorari denied 220 Ala. 110, 124 So. 251; Boyd v. State, 150 Ala. 101, 43 So. 204. The reasonableness of the possessor’s explanation concerning his possession of such goods is for the jury. Dickey v. State, 32 Ala.App. 413, 26 So.2d 532.” McFarling v. State, 35 Ala.App. 191, 45 So.2d 322, 323, certiorari denied 253 Ala. 501, 45 So.2d 324.

Under the rule above announced, the evidence was sufficient to establish the corpus delicti, and the motion to exclude the evidence was properly overruled.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

M.M. v. State
80 So. 3d 1125 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2012)
SMART PROFESSIONAL PHOTO. v. Childers-Sims
850 So. 2d 1245 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 2002)
Archie v. State
711 So. 2d 477 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1995)
Speed v. State
432 So. 2d 554 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1983)
Holm v. State
416 So. 2d 782 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1982)
Eldridge v. State
415 So. 2d 1190 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1982)
Segars v. State
409 So. 2d 1003 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1982)
Avant v. State
405 So. 2d 159 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1981)
Allen v. State
374 So. 2d 447 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1979)
Simpson v. State
354 So. 2d 317 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1978)
Radford v. State
348 So. 2d 880 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1977)
Chatom v. State
348 So. 2d 838 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1977)
McKinnon v. State
342 So. 2d 24 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1976)
Beckley v. State
335 So. 2d 244 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1976)
Scott v. State
314 So. 2d 921 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1975)
Character v. State
287 So. 2d 916 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1973)
Franklin v. State
249 So. 2d 882 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1971)
Bivens v. State
187 So. 2d 575 (Alabama Court of Appeals, 1966)
Hall v. State
186 So. 2d 743 (Alabama Court of Appeals, 1966)
Hill v. State
88 So. 2d 880 (Alabama Court of Appeals, 1956)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
66 So. 2d 827, 37 Ala. App. 256, 1953 Ala. App. LEXIS 392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tanner-v-state-alactapp-1953.