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22 Tex. Ct. App. 690

Robinson v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas

Decided January 22, 1887

Court of Appeals of Texas · decided 1887-01-22

Tried below before the Hon. W. B. Wall, County Judge. The indictment charged the appellant and George Robinson, jointly, with the theft of four hogs, of the value of three dollars each, the property of Thomas Plummer, in Houston county, Texas, on the second day of January, 1884. The penalty imposed upon the appellant, who was alone on trial and convicted in this case, was a fine of forty dollars, and confinement in the county jail for the period of ten days.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1887-01-22

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently June 1983

3 state decisions

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Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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White, Presiding Judge.

¶1We do not believe the testimony as exhibited in this record is sufficient to sustain the conviction of this appellant. With regard to the other two parties implicated in the theft of the hogs the evidence may be sufficient, amply sufficient, to establish the charge. But as to this appellant the case as made is simply one of recent possession and nothing more.

¶2What is the rule with regard to recent possession alone as evidence of theft? It is fully laid down in Lehman v. The State, 18 Texas Court of Appeals, 174, as follows, viz: “But, to warrant *692an inference or presumption of guilt from the circumstance alone of possession, such possession must be personal, must be recent, must be unexplained, and must involve a distinct and conscious assertion of property by the defendant.” Again: "We think the rule may be stated in general terms thus: ‘ If a party in whose exclusive possession goods recently stolen are found fails reasonably to account for his possession, when called upon to explain, or when the facts are such as to require an explanation of him, the presumption of guilt arising from recent loss and possession will warrant a conviction without the necessity of further proof.’” (Citing 36 Miss., 97; 42 Miss., 642; 103 Ill., 82; 43 N. Y., 177; 65 N. C., 592; to which we add 77 Va., 411.)

Opinion delivered January 22, 1887.

¶3Two essential requisites are wanting in this case, to wit: The "exclusive possession ” and “a distinct and conscious assertion of property by the defendant.”' We will not repeat the facts, as they will be fully reported.

¶4Because the evidence is wholly insufficient the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.

¶5jReversed and remanded.

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