Alexander v. State
Alexander v. State
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
By the second instruction the jury were informed that if
. If the only incriminating fact against the defendant believed by the jury was that his wagon had been used with his knowledge in hauling to his smoke-house the beef of the cow which was killed, this would not have authorized a verdict of guilty. The defendant may have known that his wagon was used in hauling the beef without having also known that a larceny of the cow had been committed, in which event he would not be guilty of any offence whatever, or he may have known that his wagon was so used to haul the beef of which the larceny was at that time completed, in which event he would be guilty of receiving stolen goods knowing them to have been stolen and not of larceny.
By the first instruction it is declared that it is larceny to kill a cow with intent to appropriate it to the use of the trespasser without the consent of the owner. This instruction, as was declared in the recent ease of Barnes v. The State, ante, p. 355, is erroneous in this that it excludes the necessity for an asportation of the property to constitute larceny. As there
Judgment reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.