Harbin v. State
| Decision Date | 19 August 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. 52779,52779 |
| Citation | 402 So.2d 360 |
| Parties | James HARBIN and Willie White v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Leon E. Provine, Grenada, for appellants.
Bill Allain, Atty. Gen. by Catherine Walker Underwood, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
Before ROBERTSON, P. J., and WALKER and LEE, JJ.
LEE, Justice, for the Court:
James Harbin and Willie White were jointly indicted, tried and convicted in the Circuit Court of Grenada County on a charge of grand larceny and each was sentenced by the court to a term of three years in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. They have appealed and assign four errors in the trial below.
The appellants contend that the court erred in declining to direct a verdict of not guilty at the conclusion of the state's evidence. When that motion for a directed verdict was overruled, the appellants proceeded with their defense and introduced evidence. It is elemental that, in so doing, they waived the contention. However, when all parties rested, they renewed their motion for a directed verdict and, since they have assigned as error that the verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence and that appellant Willie White should have been discharged, we treat all assignments of error as presenting the sole question here as to whether or not the court erred in declining to grant a verdict of not guilty for the appellants at the end of all the evidence and whether or not the verdict of the jury was contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence.
The evidence favorable to the state indicates that on the night of June 18, 1980, Randy Aron was driving his 1967 Chevrolet automobile on Interstate 55 near Holcomb, Mississippi, when the vehicle developed engine trouble and stopped. Aron took the license plate off of the automobile, placed it inside, locked the doors and left the car on the side of the highway. The next day, James Harbin and Willie White were traveling on the interstate highway in Harbin's automobile. They picked up Donnie Jones, who sought a ride to town. When Harbin arrived at the place where Aron's automobile had been left, he stopped and placed a chain on the rear of his automobile and asked Donnie Jones to hook it to the Aron vehicle, telling him that the vehicle was the property of Willie White. Donnie Jones refused to put the hook on the Chevrolet automobile, whereupon Harbin hooked the chain to it. White broke the glass out of the Chevrolet on the driver's side and got into the vehicle. Harbin began to tow the vehicle and had moved it approximately three feet when Randy Aron's sister, Sherry Aron, drove up and saw them towing the automobile. The appellants then unhooked the chain and sped away, leaving Donnie Jones at the scene.
Appellants contend that their actions about the vehicle only amounted to an attempt to steal the same and that there was no asportation (carrying away) of the Aron vehicle.
In 3 Wharton's Criminal Law, Larceny, section 378 (1980), the applicable legal principle is stated as follows:
To constitute larceny, there must be in addition to a taking or caption a carrying away or asportation of the property of another. There is a caption when the defendant takes possession; he takes possession when he exercises dominion and control over the property. There is an asportation when he carries away the property; any carrying away movement, however slight, even though...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Drummer v. State
...takes possession and control of the property.” Drummer, 167 So.3d at 1229 (¶ 18), 2014 WL 3409099, at 5 (¶ 18) (citing Harbin v. State, 402 So.2d 360, 361–62 (Miss.1981) ; Mapp v. State, 248 Miss. 898, 162 So.2d 642, 645 (1964) ). Even if the crime of larceny was still in progress, all elem......
-
Terrell v. State
...the timber to Brushy Creek.16 This Court has found that "carrying away" requires an asportation, no matter how small. Harbin v. State , 402 So.2d 360, 361–62 (Miss. 1981) (grand larceny); see also Pollard , 932 So.2d at 86. Asportation is defined as "[t]he act of carrying away or removing."......
-
Teer v. State, 2001-KA-01226-COA.
...owner's premises." Mapp v. State, 248 Miss. 898, 904, 162 So.2d 642, 645 (1964). The State points this Court to the case of Harbin v. State, 402 So.2d 360 (Miss.1981), in which the defendant had only moved an automobile approximately three feet when he was discovered. Harbin, 402 So.2d at 3......
-
Jones v. State
...defendant took possession of the property and proof of at least a "slight" "asportation" or movement of the property. Harbin v. State , 402 So.2d 360, 361-62 (Miss. 1981). Thus, it is possible that larceny would not be a lesser-included offense of an armed robbery that involved only an unsu......