Gurley v. State
Gurley v. State
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff in error, Charlie D. Gurley, was indicted jointly with Pat Gurley for the offense of larceny from the house. The theft of $200 in money and of an ancient German coin said to be worth $400 was charged in the accusation. Charlie Gurley defended by proof of an alibi. The theft was alleged to have been committed on the night of May 12, and testimony was adduced to the effect that he was at a boarding-house in Elberton that night for supper and after supper, and was in his room at the boardinghouse early the next morning. The distance from Elberton to the scene of the larceny was between 40 and 45 miles. The strongest incriminatory circumstance against the accused was his statement, a short time before the larceny, that he knew where there was $1,000 in a trunk, and no one living in the house except a man and a woman. The evidence showed that the prosecutor and his sister lived alone in the house in which this larceny was committed, and kept their money in a trunk. It was also shown that the defendant Pat Gurley, who was a brother of the defendant Charlie Gurley, boarded with the prosecutor and was thoroughly familiar with the premises.
Exception is taken to the admission of testimony from the sheriff of Hart county, to the effect that he has been unable to locate or arrest the defendant Pat Gurley, the ground of objection being that this evidence was irrelevant and prejudicial, because Charlie Gurley alone was on trial. This ground of the motion is not fully approved by the court, and for that reason can not be considered.
In the motion for a new trial complaint is made that the judge permitted the counsel for the State to comment, on some poetry written in the back of the guest register of the boarding-house. We fail to see the relevancy of this poetry in the back of the register, and think that counsel could properly have been required to discontinue the comments on it, but there is nothing in the assignment of error which enables us to judge of the nature of the comments, or to decide that they were injurious to the plaintiff in error. The comments may have been a mere matter of pleasantry, and consequently of no pith or moment in affecting the consideration of the jury.
There was no error in the charge of the court upon the subject
Judgment affirmed. Pottle, J., not presiding.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.