Court Opinion

ID: 9769961
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 15:09:24.229949+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:09.434328
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION
WOODLEY, Presiding Judge.
I do not agree that the evidence is insufficient.
At the very time that appellant dropped the box containing 13 pairs of new men’s shoes made by Plymouth Shoe Company in Massachusetts, a trailer that had brought a shipment of such shoes from the factory to Dallas by rail piggyback was parked at the warehouse nearby.
Appellant’s only statement prior to his arrest was “what box.” His “story” following his arrest was excluded when offered by the state. He did not see fit to testify or offer any evidence to account for his possession of the box of shoes and there was none before the jury save his statement “what box,” which in effect was a denial that he had carried and dropped the box of shoes.
Some 30 minutes after appellant dropped the box of shoes, he was taken to the warehouse where the trailer that had been partially unloaded the day before was parked. Two unidentified men were in the trailer and the freight was “strewn all over the back of the trailer.” Until the unloading was completed later in the morning and the merchandise in the shipment was checked, it could not be ascertained what was missing.
The defense elicited evidence that before taking appellant to the warehouse where the trailer was parked the arresting officers “checked” appellant’s story, looked to see of shops in a certain area had been burglarized and conversed with the operator of a pool hall.
While it would have been preferable for the box of shoes dropped by appellant and taken to the police property room and the freight bill to have been introduced in evidence at the trial several months later, the evidence reveals that such box of shoes had been released from the property room and delivered to the factory’s customer.
Gaskins’ investigation was made within a short time after the box of shoes appellant dropped was taken to the police property room. His determination regarding the box of shoes was necessarily based upon information he obtained “from intermediate sources” such as the facts shown by the testimony of the witnesses Mullonax and Grimes and the freight bill.
I would affirm the conviction.