Taplin v. State
Taplin v. State
Opinion of the Court
Conviction is for theft of cotton, punishment being two years in the penitentiary.
Mr. Fojt lived in Burleson County at Snooks, some seventeen or eighteen miles from Bryan. He was a ginner by occupation, and packed the cotton ginned by him in both round and square bales. Nine round bales.and four square bales of cotton were stolen from the storage room next to the round bale press. Fojt was shipping out cotton, and during the time between the second and eleventh of November he missed the thirteen bales mentioned . above. The record does not show how the cotton was taken away from the gin; it seems clear from Fojt’s testimony that it was not all taken at one time. C. L. Eden ran a gin at Bryan in Brazos County. On November 8th he bought some lint cotton from a negro named Carter, who told Eden that he had four bales which had caught fire, and that he (Carter) had saved about half of it. This cotton was brought to the gin in a Chevrolet car by Carter and another negro by the name of Richmond. Eden paid $40 for this first load at the rate of eight cents per pound. The next day (November 9th) Carter and Richmond came back with another load of cotton in the Chevrolet, which Eden also bought, paying $30 therefor at the rate of seven cents per pound. Appellant (Taplin) was not present with Carter and Richmond on either of the two occasions mentioned. According to Eden’s testimony, appellant, who was also a negro, came to Eden some time during the day of the 9th of November and told Eden that he had had some cotton ginned over in Burleson County but there was not enough to
There is nothing in the record to show the location of “Jones’ bridge.” Whether it is between Snooks and Bryan, or in the opposite direction is not shown. At the time Richmond pointed out to the officers and others the place near “Jones’ bridge” appellant was not present, but was in jail, and under the circumstances not bound by Richmond’s act. It shows that Richmond had some previous knowledge of the place where some round bales from Fojt’s gin had been torn up, including bale No. 2080, but there is nothing in the record before us identifying the thousand pounds of cotton in question as having come partly from round bale No. 2080, or any other round bale which may have been dismantled near “Jones’ bridge.”
It may be that on another trial the facts will come nearer
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Lewis Taplin v. State
- Status
- Published