Thomas v. State

<p>Indictment for larceny from house; from Wilkes superior court — Judge Shurley. April 1, 1922.</p> <p>Ollie Thomas was charged with having stolen speckled field peas from an outhouse of T. B. Cosby. Cosby testified that he missed from his outhouse twelve or fifteen bushels of peas stored there, of the kind described in the indictment; that the outhouse was locked and that the staples were drawn, and that afterwards, at Mr. Short’s store, in Helena, Mr. Short identified to him two negroes from whom he (Short) had bought peas, one of them as having sold speckled peas, and the other white peas, and that “ Mr. Short bought white peas from Ollie,” the defendant; that they both denied taking the peas, and he (the witness) thought they both said the peas belonged to Duck, a negro woman that lived at Mr. Joe Grenade’s; and that the defendant lived with Mr. Tom Grenade, about 500 yards from the barn of the witness. J. W. Grenade testified that the defendant and the other negro said they “ brought ” the peas from the negro woman Duck, who lived with the witness, but he (the witness) knew that this was not true; that when he returned home he found all the peas that belonged to her. Short testified that the peas sold to him by the defendant were white peas, that the defendant’s companion sold speckled peas, and that they were together, in a wagon, when the peas were sold. Tom Grenade testified: “ I had a conversation with Ollie Thomas and Scrap Allen since they have been in jail about stealing peas from Mr. Cosby. . The first time Ollie said. . he didn’t steal any peas from Mr. Cosby •— said he picked them out of my field and sold them. He sent for me again . , and said, c Boss, I didn’t tell you the truth before; I am going to tell you the truth now. . . I didn’t steal any peas at all; it was Scrap who stole them all.’ . . I said, ‘ Scrap, did you steal all the peas ? ’ He said, 1 Yes, sir.’ He said he carried them up to Ollie’s house; that was the last time; but the first time Scrap told me he stole them from Mr. Cosby and carried them to Ollie’s house. Ollie was there all the time during that conversation. He admitted that, but he denied that they were stolen — said he didn’t know they were stolen.” The defendant, in his statement at the trial, said that the peas were brought to his house by Scrap, and that he did not know that they were stolen.</p>