Smith v. State
Smith v. State
Opinion of the Court
. This is an appeal from the Circuit Court of Wilkinson County, Mississippi, from a conviction on a charge of grand larceny of a red “devron” heifer calf of the value of $65, the property of James Rock Carter. Appellant, Zane Smith, was sentenced to a term of three years in the state penitentiary.
James Rock Carter had a small herd of cattle, including the heifer in question, which weighed about 250 pounds. Zane Smith and one Woodrow Burgess killed the heifer with a 22-calibre rifle, and carried the carcass to a point several miles away on Mile Hill, partly dressed the calf, leaving the entrails and head near the public road. The head was discovered early the nest morning, and a search was instituted to determine the owner of the calf. On the night prior to the morning of the discovery of the head, a man and his daughter happened by the scene of the dressing of the calf and
Appellant argued that the. confession was involuntary because of the fear produced in him by the manner of
Appellant assigns as error remarks of a special prosecutor in his argument to the jury on failure of appellant to testify as shown by a special'bill of exceptions. It is contended in a special bill of exceptions that Richard T. Watson, one of the special prosecutors, in a statement to the jury, said “that this man said he was a confessed thief.” Objection was based on the fact that appellant did not take the stand and testify. Does this remark constitute an unwarranted comment on the failure of the defendant to testify? The full text of Mr. Watson’s remarks is not given in the special bill of exceptions, and the above-quoted was only a phrase or clause taken from his remarks to the jury. The evidence in the case is that the confession was made to the sheriff that he and Burgess went to the place, killed the calf and butchered it. The sheriff testified that he made this confession of theft or larceny of the heifer described. Since the defendant did not testify, the remark could only mean that the sheriff said that appellant was a confessed thief. There is no dispute in this
Appellant contends that the refusal of his request for a peremptory instruction was error. The evidence in this case is uncontradicted that appellant and Burgess shot and killed the calf, drove several miles away to dress it, took it to St. Francisville, Louisiana, to complete the job, butchered it and stored the meat. We think that the only question for the jury to decide was whether or not appellant had first run into the calf with the truck and had shot the calf as an act of mercy, or was larceny. He made a confession that the calf was stolen, which confession was shown to have been freely and voluntarily made. The jury was therefore justified in finding defendant guilty of larceny. We are of the opinion, and so hold, that the record in this case is unusually free from error, and the verdict of the jury and the judgment of the trial court is therefore affirmed.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.