Thomas v. State
Thomas v. State
Opinion of the Court
Appellant was indicted and tried for grand larceny; the jury convicted her of petit larceny.
Before the introduction of evidence showing appellant’s recent possession of the lavaliere, claimed to have been stolen, the effect or tendency of the evidence previously introduced had been to prove the theft of the lavaliere (the corpus delicti) by some •unknown person. In Martin’s Case, 104 Ala. 71, 16 South. 82, Brickell, C. J., states the rule which is quoted with approval in Jackson’s Case, 167 Ala. 77, 52 South. 730, as follows: “It is the *165 settled law of this state that the recent possession of stolen goods imposes on the possessor the onus of explaining the possession; and, if he fails to make a reasonable explanation, raises a presumption of guilt, which will support a verdict of conviction. If there was evidence tending to connect the' defendant with the larceny, the recent unexplained possession of the goods, it may be, would raise the presumption that he had stolen them, rather than that he had received them knowing them to have been stolen. But where the evidence, though proving the larceny, does not connect him with its commission, tending to fix the guilt of it upon another, and he has the recent possession of the goods, if he makes no reasonable explanation of the possession [and the reasonableness of the explantion is a matter for the jury] the same presumption should be applied, which would be applied if the possession had remained with the first taker. There is no unfairness in the presumption; it is reasonable.”
Hence the onus was on appellant to make such reasonable explanation as might satisfy the minds of the jury, and in this she failed. We are unable, in this state of the evidence, to perceive the cogency of appellant’s objection; the court’s oral charge was without error.
There being no error in the record, the judgment of the learned trial court is affirmed.
Affirmed.
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