Cason v. State

• Citation: 230 Md. 356,187 A.2d 103
• Decision Date: 10 January 1963
• Docket Number: No. 123,123
• Parties: Russell Garland CASON v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Maryland

Page 356

230 Md. 356

187 A.2d 103

Russell Garland CASON v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 123.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Jan. 10, 1963.

E. Thomas Maxwell, Jr., Baltimore, for appellant.

Thomas B. Finan, Atty. Gen., Jacques E. Leeds, Asst. Atty. Gen., William J. O'Donnell, State's Atty., and James W. McAllister, Asst. State's Atty., Baltimore, for appellee.

Before HENDERSON, HAMMOND, PRESCOTT, HORNEY and MARBURY, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

The appellant was convicted of the larceny of a transistor radio by Judge Cullen, sitting without a jury, and he has appealed.

He contends that the radio, the subject of the larceny, was improperly admitted into evidence, and that the evidence was not sufficient to support a finding of his guilt.

The prosecuting witness' automobile was forcibly entered, and the radio stolen therefrom on August 5, 1961. Thereafter, on December 19, 1961, police officers discovered the radio in an apartment occupied by the appellant. He told the officers that he had purchased it from a store, but did not remember what store. At the trial, he did not testify and offer any explanation of how he came into possession of the radio, but produced his fifteen-year-old son, who testified that he, the son, had bought it, from 'two boys [who] where walking up the street,' for four dollars.

Appellant acknowledges and concedes the principle of law which requires that a person, who is found in possession of recently stolen property, produce a reasonable explanation of such possession, or face an inference that he is the one who has stolen it (Butz v. State, 221 Md. 68, 156 A.2d 423), but claims that the lapse of time between the theft and his possession in the case at bar is so great that he was not in possession of 'recently' stolen property. In Butz, we stated: 'The term 'recent,' when used in connection with recently stolen goods, is a relative term, and its meaning as applied to a given case will vary with the circumstances of the case.' See also State v. Jenkins, Mo., 213 S.W. 796; State v. Brightman, Iowa, 110 N.W.2d 315; 32 Am.Jur., Larceny, § 142; Boehm v. United States, 271 F. 454 (C.A. 2). Cf. 52 C.J.S. Larceny § 106. We think that the radio was properly admitted in evidence, and that the evidence was sufficient to support appellant's conviction. The lapse of something over four months of time, under the circumstances of this case, was insufficient to destroy the probative effect that the trier of facts was entitled to give to the 'recent'...