State v. D'Adame
State v. D'Adame
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The defendant was convicted of the crime of receiving goods, knowing them to be stolen, and this result he seeks to reverse by the writ of error issued in this cause. But two matters are urged for reversal, one of which is directed against the admission of certain testimony, and the other rests upon an objection to the charge of the trial court. The case made by the state against the defendant shows that two boys, Edward M. Knight and William Mahon, admitted stealing from the Lehigh Yalley Railroad Company some copper wire, and that they sold it to the defendant. On the trial a police officer by the name of Miller testified that he and another officer named Autobato took the boy Knight to the residence of the defendant, and he was then asked, “Q. State what the boy said and what the defendant said. A. Autobato asked the boy
The only other matter argued is that the court committed an error in charging the jury as follows: “Guilty knowledge may be found by the jury where the defendant receives the goods under such circumstances as would satisfy a man of ordinary intelligence and caution that they were stolen.” This excerpt from the charge is the precise language used by the court in State v. Goldman, 36 Vroom 394, and the correctness of the principle does not appear to be seriously questioned by the plaintiff in error in this ease, but the argument in support of this exception is based upon the statement that the case “was almost entirely barren of proof of any circumstances from which guilty knowledge may.be inferred,” and however effective it might be upon a rule to show cause or other proceeding assailing the verdict, it cannot be considered in dealing with a writ of error, there being some evidence from which the jury might infer that the defendant received the goods under such circumstances as should have satisfied a man of ordinary intelligence and caution that they were stolen. In most cases of receiving stolen goods direct proof of guilty knowledge is difficult to produce, and therefore the offence must be, in nearly every case, established by circumstances, “and the rule is that in order to be effective as proof of guilty
We find no error in the record in the matters relied upon and presented at the argument, and therefore the judgment below should he affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE OF NEW JERSEY, IN ERROR v. JOHN D'ADAME, IN ERROR
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published