Case ID: ga-app_33/html/0352-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Bloodwobtii, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

15947.
    Willis v. The State.
    Decided January 14, 1925.
    Indictment for larceny of cow; from Baldwin superior court— Judge Park. September 16, 1934.
    From the evidence it appears that Pearson’s cow, which was alleged to have been stolen by Bud Willis, the defendant, was found in the possession of Lingold, who had bought her from Willis. Lingold testified: “Willis first told me that he bought the cow from a negro and gave him $40. After that he told me that he got the cow from Mr. Boyer. He said that he and Ernest Wilson were working for Mr. Boyer, and Mr. Boyer owed them $10 apiece and gave them a gallon of whisky apiece, and they turned around and gave Mr. Boyer a gallon of whisky apiece for the cow. ” There was also evidence that the defendant sawed o£E the cow’s horns and cut off her ears, one of which had been marked with a split by Pearson, and that her tail was cut off after she left Pearson’s possession. Pearson testified that he missed the cow for about two months, and that when he missed her “she was lodged with Mr. Clint Boyer’s cows,” and was running at large; that he lived “in sight of Mr. Boyer’s.” Lingold testified that for a month or two before he traded for the cow he saw her running at large and at the home of Mrs. Hoover, the defendant’s sister, that the cow was milked there, and he traded for her there. The defendant’s father testified that Boyer tried to sell the cow to him, and afterwards sold her to the defendant. Ernest Wilson testified that the cow was on Boyer’s place when he (Wilson) and the defendant were doing carpentering work for Boyer, and that after they had been working there for about a week Boyer said lie did not have money to pay them and proposed that they trade for the cow, that they did so, and the defendant paid him (Wilson) for his part. The defendant, in his statement at the trial, said that he bought the cow from Boyer because it was the only way he could get paid for the work he had been doing for Boyer; that he sawed the cow’s horns off because "his sister told him that the cow was about to kill her cows and he would have to do something with her; that in sawing off the horns the saw cut the cow’s ear and he finished the cutting. He denied that he had said anything to Lingold about whisky in connection with the trading for the cow.
   Bloodwobtii, J.

The offense charged in the indictment being simple larceny, and the guilt of the accused being wholly dependent upon the inference arising from possession of the cow alleged to have been stolen, and this possession being shown by uneontradieted and unimpeached testimony to be consistent with his innocence of the offense charged, the conviction of the accused was unauthorized. Peeples v. State, 5 Ga. App. 706 (53 S. E. 719); Hampton v. State, 6 Ga. App. 778 (65 S. E. 816); Gibbs v. State, 8 Ga. App. 107 (68 S. E. 472); Brooks v. State, 21 Ga. App. 661 (94 S. E. 810); Williams v. State, 125 Ga. 268 (54 S. E. 166).

Judgment reversed,.

Luke and Blood-worth, JJ., concur. Broyles, O. J., dissents.

Allen & Pottle° Marion E. Allen, for plaintiff in error.

Doyle Campbell, solicitor-general, A. Y. Clement, contra.