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23 Ala. App. 355

125 So 901

Bell v. State

Alabama Court of Appeals

Decided December 17, 1929

Alabama Court of Appeals · decided 1929-12-17

Relies on Martin v. State · Shepperd v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1929-12-17

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently April 1952

9 state decisions

401929193019401950decided

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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SAMFORD, J.

¶1 The indictment was in two counts, the first charging burglary and the second grand larceny. The verdict found the defendant guilty under the second count. This was an acquittal of the charge in the first count. 1 Mayfield Digest, 866 (6).

¶2 The werdict of the jury eliminated the first count of the indictment, and left the second count, which was a charge of grand larceny, and therefore the recital in the judgment that “the defendant is guilty as charged in the indictment” could only relate to the second count.

¶3 The recent unexplained possession of stolen property imposes on the defendant the onus of explaining the possession consistent with his innocence, and if he fail to make a reasonable explanation, it raises an inference of guilt which must be considered by the jury and will support a verdict of conviction. 1 Mayfield, 582 (293); Martin v. State, 104 Ala. 71, 16 So. 83; Shepperd v. State, 94 Ala. 102, 10 So. 663.

¶4 From the facts as presented in this record, we cannot say that the trial court erred in overruling the motion for a new trial.

¶5 Refused charge 2 is bad for several reasons, one of which is it limits guilt to an actual carrying away, whereas the defendant may have been an accomplice.

¶6 We find no prejudicial error in the record. Let the judgment be affirmed.

¶7 Affirmed.

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