Case Title: State v. Voncannon

Citation: 276 S.E.2d 370

Docket Number: 

State: north-carolina

Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Date: 1981-04-07T00:00:00Z

Document:
276 S.E.2d 370 (1981) STATE of North Carolina v. James Curtis VONCANNON. No. 29. Supreme Court of North Carolina. April 7, 1981. *372 Rufus L. Edmisten, Atty. Gen. by John R. B. Matthis, Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen., and Acie L. Ward, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State. Joe D. Floyd and David K. Rosenblutt, High Point, for defendant. BRANCH, Chief Justice. Defendant first contends that the Court of Appeals erred by affirming the trial judge's denial of defendant's motion to dismiss. The State relied exclusively on the doctrine of recent possession of stolen goods. Defendant, however, argues that the record contains no direct evidence of possession by defendant. He concludes that the doctrine of recent possession cannot be the basis of a conviction of larceny without direct evidence of possession by defendant. The State admits that the record contains no direct evidence that defendant possessed the tractor. It argues, however, that it introduced sufficient circumstantial evidence of possession to trigger the doctrine of recent possession. Since the Yorks never saw the mysterious man on the tractor, the State contends, the jury could reasonably infer defendant possessed and controlled the tractor despite defendant's version of events. We recently dealt with a similar issue in State v. Maines, 301 N.C. 669, 273 S.E.2d 289 (1981). In that case, we recited the law of the doctrine of recent possession: Id. at 674, 273 S.E.2d at 293-94. In Maines we also reiterated the prohibition against convicting a defendant on the basis of "stacked inferences." The State in Maines presented no direct evidence of the defendant's possession of the stolen goods; it relied solely on the inference of possession from the fact that the defendant was driving the car, owned by another, in which the stolen goods were found. We concluded that the conviction was improper because to permit conviction would have been to allow the inference of guilt based on recent possession to be stacked on the inference of possession based on the control of the car. Quoting State v. Parker, 268 N.C. 258, 262, 150 S.E.2d 428, 431 (1966), we said, In this case, the facts present the same legal situation in a different context. Nevertheless, here as in Maines, evidence of defendant's possession was at most circumstantial based on the fact that he asked his brother-in-law to permit an unnamed person to park the tractor on his brother-in-law's premises. To convict defendant the jury would have to infer that defendant was in possession of the tractor and then infer that he was the person who stole the tractor based on the inferred possession. Thus, the State was permitted to build its case by stacking the inference of guilt based upon the doctrine of recent possession on top of the inference of possession based on circumstantial evidence. Considering the complete lack of any direct evidence tending either to connect defendant with the crime or to show him in possession of the stolen property, we hold that the possession shown in defendant is insufficient to support a verdict of guilty of the larceny charged in the bill of indictment. Nonsuit was therefore appropriate. The decision of the Court of Appeals upholding the denial of defendant's motion for nonsuit is REVERSED.