Syllabus by the Court.
1.
The court charged: 'The testimony of a single witness is
generally sufficient to
establish a fact. An exception to this rule
is made in the case of a felony--and burglary is a
felony--where the only witness is an accomplice; in such case
corroborating circumstances may dispense with another
witness. The corroborating circumstances referred to must be
such as to connect the defendant with the perpetration of the
crime, and tend to show his participation therein.' This
rule so charged has been well settled since the decision in
the case of Childers v. State, 52 Ga. 106. It was
applicable to the evidence and there was no error in so
instructing the jury.
2.
The charges on flight and on the rule relative to recent
possession of stolen goods alleged to have been found in the
hands of one charged with burglary were each correct in the
abstract and were authorized by the evidence. There was no
error in so charging for the reasons assigned.
3.
The evidence authorized the verdict, and the court did not
err in overruling the motion for a new trial.
The
defendant, Homer Blakely, was tried and
found guilty under an indictment for the felony of burglary.
To the judgment of the trial court overruling his motion for
a new trial, which contained the general and three special
grounds, he excepts and assigns the same as error for the
consideration of this court.
E
A. Rusk, proprietor of the Rusk Motorcycle Company in
Columbus, Georgia, was placed upon the witness stand by the
State and testified that on October 21, 1946, his place of
business was broken into and entered by burglars who cut a
hasp on the back door thereof, and a safe containing
$17,000.00 in cash and $13,000.00 in government bonds was
stolen therefrom. [The burglars took the safe from his place
of business and transported it in the car of the confessed
accomplice Tillery 'out on the Sanford Road' and
there broke into and extracted the money from it, leaving the
safe in a creek.] Rusk identified a $10.00 bill which was
exhibited to him, saying: 'The $10.00 bill that I hold in
my hand was in my safe on the night my place was burglarized.
I recognize it. I remember very distinctly this piece of
yellow color at the end of the bill. I had wrapped it with
some tape and the tape marks are on the bill now. I have
pulled those tape marks off before and they do leave a slight
mark on the bill. * * * I am identifying the bill by the
colored spot of the scotch tape mark.' This bill, which
was sent to this court with the record in a special exhibit
is discolored by a yellowish-brown stain which appears on
each side thereof at one end.
Ocle
Newman, sworn for the State, testified: 'I heard about
the Rusk Motorcycle Company being broken into and entered and
on the day before that night I saw the defendant, Homer
Blakely. * * * He said he wanted to see me that night. I saw
him the next day. * * * We got in a car and road over to the
Rusk Motorcycle Company. We got out of the car. He had
informed me that he heard that the Rusk Motorcycle Company
was going to be broken in by some people and we went over
there to look at it. * * * He went around to the side. * * *
Then we went across the river [from Columbus] and stopped
somewhere around a drug store some place. He told me he was
going to see somebody and I lay down in the back of the car.
I didn't want to see who it was. He said he wanted us to
see somebody, he didn't say who. * * * I was not looking.
* * * I seen him later on in North Carolina at a little old
tourist camp. I went up there with James
Bush. Homer Blakely paid James Bush a little money, I think
approximately $35.00. I don't remember the denomination.
Homer [the defendant] had on him at that time a wallet with
some money, a pretty good size long wallet. I couldn't
tell whether there were any packages in it or not. * * *'
The credibility of the witness was sought to be impeached by
questioning him as to his prior conviction for burglary on
cross-examination. The witness also
testified: '[In North Carolina] there
was nothing unusual about his [the defendant's]
appearance and there was nothing unusual about his having
some money in his wallet.'
When
placed on the witness stand by the State, James Bush
testified: 'On * * * the 22nd day of October, 1946, I
made a trip up to Fayetteville, North Carolina. Newman went
with me. While I was up there I met Homer. * * * We went into
a store and Homer says, 'I owe you some money,
James.' I says, 'Yes.' He says, 'I want to
pay some of it. How much is it?' I says, 'I don't
remember the exact amount,' and he says, 'Here is
$35.00.' This $10.00 bill was in my possession when the
police picked me up. I had $754.00 in my possession. Homer
could have give me this as well as anybody else could have. I
couldn't swear. I am not going to tell a lie. * * * I
stated to [the Solicitor General] that Homer gave me this
$10.00 bill, but I was in jail and you know I wanted to get
out. * * * I had borrowed $700.00 from Ed Revells. I had it
in my pocket. * * * And I had $19.00 of my own personal money
and $35.00 Homer gave me. I am not going to say Ed gave it to
me or Homer gave it to me, or who. I might have told Mr. Ed
[the Solicitor General] that, but I was in jail and wanted
out. It was a little tough when you get down there and they
tell you they are going to put you in the penitentiary and
you know you ain't done it. Homer had a big pack of bills
and he undone them and gave me $35.00 out of the bills. They
had something around the end of them, tape or rubber or
something around the edge of them. It could have been
printers tape. He had a package of money about like that. * *
* That is not the first time I have seen bills stuck together
like that. I do it myself and have seen other people do it.
There wasn't anything unusual about that.'
Lamar
Tillery, a confessed accomplice, testified: 'On * * * the
21st day of October, 1946, I saw Homer Blakely, the
defendant on trial. I had a conversation with
him on that day concerning the robbery of the Rusk Motorcycle
Company. He came to my house twice; one time concerning the
robbery of Rusk Motorcycle company and the other to sell some
narcotics. He borrowed my automobile and said he was going
after a safe. When he got it he came back to my house and
picked me up. * * * We went out on the Sanford Road and
busted into the safe. * * * After the money was taken out it
was put in the automobile and I was given approximately
$3,500.00 and some change. They taken the rest and went on
with it. Buddy Earhart, myself, Homer Blakely and his girl. *
* * We threw the safe in Uchee Creek. They told me they got
the safe by going through the side entrance and backing the
automobile out and rolling the safe and putting it in the
automobile. The government bonds were destroyed and throwed
in the creek. * * * I am under a two year sentence in the
United States Public Service Hospital. * * * I understand
that there is nobody there at the hospital except morphine
addicts and people who take other forms of dope. * * * I have
been addicted to the use of morphine for several
years.'
P.
E. Shoffeitt, of Auburn, Alabama, testified that he was a
toxicologist with the State [Alabama] Department of
Toxicology and with the Department of Criminal Investigation
of Alabama. The witness' qualifications were admitted by
counsel for the defendant. He then testified that he made an
examination of the trunk compartment of the car of Tillery
[the accomplice] and found there paint flakes which were
compared with the paint on the safe and that in his opinion
the safe taken from the Rusk Motorcycle Company had been
hauled in the trunk of Tillery's automobile.
T.
H. Slay of the Phenix City, Alabama, police department
testified: 'I was requested to find Homer Blakely and
arrest him. I went everywhere I thought he might be. I knew
where his daddy lived. I went out there and looked for him. I
was unable to find him. I do not know the date on which I was
instructed to look for him. I think it was about three days
after the burglary. Three days before we got the arrest
order. * * * I know Homer Blakely. I don't know where
Homer lived. I knew where his father lived, but I don't
know whether he was living with his father
or not.' Another officer testified that
$3,500.00 had been recovered from Lamar
Tillery, the confessed accomplice.
The
defendant, in his statement to the jury, said: 'I am not
guilty of what they have got me charged with. As far as going
out wherever this place is--motorcycle shop--I haven't
been anywhere with this Newman boy. I * * * barely know him.
* * * As far as having him in my car, I have not; and I
haven't had any money--any of the rest of the money in my
possession at no time. The reason for me to leave here, I had
a fight with my brother-in-law down in lower Girard, front of
a cafe down there, and he threatened to kill me, and I come
over and told Sheriff Matthews about it. And my sister was
ill during the time and I decided it was best to leave where
I wouldn't worry her. As far as having any connection
with any burglary or anything, I haven't had anything to
do with it.' The defendant introduced other evidence in
order to prove an alibi. He also placed another witness
Richard Lamar Earhart, who had plead guilty to having
participated in the burglary in question, on the witness
stand. Earhart testified that the defendant had nothing to do
with the robbery and that he and Tillery were the only ones
who participated in it. A. G. Reese, placed on the stand in
rebuttal by the State, testified: I know Buddy Earhart. * * *
I had him arrested. * * *...
