Stover v. State
Stover v. State
Opinion of the Court
William Stover was convicted under an indictment charging that he did “break and enter the storehouse and place of business of Ed Yates, Arthur Yates, and Pierce Yates [The Yates Bleachery in Flintstone, Georgia], the same being a place of business where valuable goods, wares, produce, and other articles of value were contained and stored, with intent to commit larceny therein.” The defendant’s motion for a new trial, based solely on the general grounds, was overruled and he excepted.
In his brief, filed in this court on the appeal, counsel for the defendant contends that all the evidence was entirely circum
According to the State’s theory, the burglary was committed at about two o’clock on the morning of August 3, 1951; there were four participants, including the defendant Stover, a negro man named Bray, and two white men named Yokely and Adams; Adams and Bray entered the bleachery while the defendant and Yokely remained nearby in the defendant’s automobile, a maroon DeSoto convertible, as lookouts; and their entry into the bleachery was effected through the basement of the sanforizing room, up an unfinished flight of stairs, on which only the risers were in place, and into the sanforizing room by removing boards which covered the well of the unfinished stairs.
From the evidence adduced on the trial it appears that at about one o’clock on the morning of August 3, 1951, Richard V. Camp Jr., a witness for the State, saw the defendant in a maroon convertible in Chattanooga Valley, Walker County, Georgia, and the negro Bray and the two white men, Yokely and Adams, were with him. At about two o’clock on the same morning, the night watchman at the Yates Bleachery saw a negro man and a white man walking along in stooped positions in the softener room of the bleachery. The softener room adjoins the sanforizing room. The night watchman left the bleachery quietly and ran a short distance to the home of Ed Yates. As he approached the Yates house, he saw an automobile drive away from the rear of the Yates house and saw someone in the automobile fire a pistol and heard three shots. The other two Yates brothers were summoned, and they together with another of their employees went to the bleachery where they found the door to the basement open, and saw footprints leading from outside that door up the unfinished stairway. The boards which covered the stair well had been moved sufficiently to permit entrance into the sanforizing room. All the other doors and windows were “safe and sound.” No one was present in the bleachery and nothing had been removed therefrom so far as they could ascertain, although considerable quantities of valuable cloth were stored there and the weekly payroll of sev
From the evidence which we have set out briefly above, the jury was authorized to find that the four men named were engaged in a conspiracy to burglarize the bleachery; that Bray and Adams entered the bleachery by way of the unfinished stairs from the basement to the sanforizing room; that they effected their entrance by removing the boards; that the de
Judgment affirmed,.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.