Buntain v. State
Buntain v. State
Opinion of the Court
All the questions presented by the record in this case necessary to be noticed have been discussed and determined in the companion case of Buntain v. The State, charge of burglary, this day decided by us, and we refer to the opinion in that case for a solution of them, except the single one of the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction, which we allude to but do not discuss in the opinion in that case. We shall therefore in this case consider the single question: Is the verdict supported by the evidence? Without reciting the evidence in detail, we will mention only the material portions of it bearing upon the question before us.
Bunk Ramsay’s watch and chain were stolen from him while he was asleep in a railroad car at Fort Worth, in the night time. There was a partition in the car, dividing it into two rooms, and in this partition were a door and a window. Ramsay, on that night, went to bed in one of the rooms of this car about eleven
We have stated substantially all the criminative facts in the case. The two men who staid in the same car on that night were not produced as witnesses, nor was their absence accounted for. Mack Gregory, who was found in possession of the stolen watch, was not produced as a witness, nor was his absence accounted for. Neither the watch nor the chain were ever seen in possession of the defendant. He had the opportunity to com
While we may be convinced of the guilt of the defendant, we cannot act upon such conviction unless it is founded upon evidence which, under the rules of law, is deemed sufficient to exclude every reasonable hypothesis except the one of the defendant’s guilt. We must look alone to the evidence as we find it in the record, and applying to it the measure of the law, ascertain whether or not it fills that measure. It will not do to sustain convictions based upon suspicions or inadequate testimony. It would be a dangerous precedent to do so, and would render precarious the protection which the law seeks to throw around the lives and liberties of the citizen.
This defendant may be, and most probably is, guilty, as found by the jury, but in our opinion the evidence tending to establish that guilt does not fill the measure of the law. Besides, it appears from the evidence that it was within the power of the State to produce satisfactory and perhaps conclusive evidence of the defendant’s guilt. Where was Mack Gregory, in whose possession the watch was found soon after it was stolen ? Why was he not produced as a witness ? He certainly could have told how he came by the watch; from whom he received it, and by this testimony the watch might have been traced back into the possession of the defendant. It is possible, also, that the two men who were in the room with the defendant on the night of the theft might have given important testimony.
We cannot sanction the conviction upon the evidence presented to us, and because we think the verdict is unsupported by the evidence the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.
Reversed and remanded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.