Cooksie v. State

• Decision Date: 29 June 1888
• Citation: 9 S.W. 58
• Parties: COOKSIE <I>v.</I> STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

9 S.W. 58

COOKSIE

v. STATE.

Court of Appeals of Texas.

June 29, 1888.

Appeal from district court, Grayson county; H. O. HEAD, Judge.

Conviction for embezzlement of a valise and second-hand articles of clothing, worth more than $20, the property of Cæsar Moore. Penalty fixed at two years and six months in the penitentiary. On the trial, Moore testified that, on leaving Gainesville for Dallas, he requested defendant to bundle up his clothes, and send them to him by express. He also sent word to one Rhoda McMurray to do the same. He never received the valise and clothes. Rhoda McMurray testified that she gathered up the clothes, packed them into a valise, and delivered them to defendant to be sent to Dallas. Defendant afterward told her that he had sent them by express. It was also proved that defendant claimed to have taken the valise to the express office, and, failing to find the express agent, left it there, and never returned to see about it; but several witnesses testified to seeing him in possession of a valise at different times after he claimed to have left it at the express office. The proof as to the value of the property was very conflicting; some of the witnesses placing it above and some under $20. Upon this point the court charged the jury as follows: "If you believe from the evidence that the defendant is liable, under the charges given you, for the embezzlement of any of the articles described in the indictment, you are instructed that in arriving at the value of such articles, and thereby fixing the punishment of the defendant, you will be governed by what, if anything, you believe from the evidence was the fair and reasonable value of such articles at the time and place they were embezzled." Upon the question as to whether or not defendant was the agent of Moore, the court charged as follows: "In deciding as to whether or not the defendant was the agent of Cæsar Moore, you are instructed that if you believe from the evidence that said Moore told the defendant to get said articles, and bring them to him, and also told one Mrs. Williams to have Rhoda McMurray to get and bring or send them to him, and that said McMurray, in compliance with said instructions, did get said articles into her possession, and deliver them to defendant for him to send by express to said Moore, or to his wife, at Dallas, for him, and that defendant so received said articles into his possession, agreeing with said McMurray so to send them to Moore or his wife for him, then you will find defendant to have been such agent."

Brown, Gunter & Bliss, for appellant. Asst. Atty. Gen. Davidson, for the State.

HURT, J.

This is a conviction for embezzlement. It is very clearly shown that appellant was the agent of Cæsar Moore, as charged in the indictment. Hence the charge of the court upon this branch of the case is correct.

Rhoda McMurray was an important witness for the...