Harper v. Commonwealth

• Decision Date: 20 November 1925
• Citation: 211 Ky. 346
• Parties: Harper v. Commonwealth.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

211 Ky. 346

Harper v. Commonwealth.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

Decided November 20, 1925.

1. Criminal Law — Evidence Held Sufficient to Corroborate Testimony of Accomplices. — In prosecution for breaking into a storehouse with intention of stealing, and of stealing, therefrom, held that evidence of witness that he had seen accused in locality of place where crime was committed at about that time, was sufficient to

comply with the requirements of Criminal Code of Practice, section 241, requiring corroboration of testimony of accomplices.

2. Criminal Law — Conviction will Not be Reversed Because of Newly Discovered Evidence that Witnesses had been Promised Immunity, in Absence of Showing such to be so. — Conviction will not be reversed on ground of newly discovered evidence that accomplices who testified for Commonwealth had been promised immunity from prosecution if they would testify against accused, where there was no showing that either of witnesses had been promised immunity.

Appeal from McCracken Circuit Court.

L.B. ALEXANDER and C.C. GRASSHAM for appellant.

FRANK E. DAUGHERTY, Attorney General, and CHARLES F. CREAL, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

OPINION OF THE COURT BY TURNER, COMMISSIONER.

Affirming.

Appellant, Noland Puckett, Ray Sparks and Raymond Brady, were jointly indicted, charged with breaking into a storehouse with the intention of stealing, and of stealing therefrom a safe and money and other articles contained therein.

On his separate trial appellant was found guilty and sentenced to three years' imprisonment, from which judgment he appeals.

On the trial Brady and Puckett, admittedly accomplices, testified as witnesses for the Commonwealth, and detailed in their evidence a meeting of the four defendants, and their agreement to break into the store and steal the money and other articles contained in the safe. That was in the late afternoon, and that night while the store was still open the four went to the place, two of them going into the store and two remaining on the outside, presumably for the purpose of getting an intimate knowledge of the situation, preliminary to carrying out their plans. The store was closed for the night at about 10:30 or 11:00 p.m., and between that and 2:00 a.m. it was entered, the safe removed and carried some five or six miles in the country where, after it was broken into with an axe, the valuables, including about $280.00 in money, removed therefrom, and the safe itself sunk in a stream. These things appeared in detail from the testimony of Puckett and Brady, their evidence disclosing the entry into the storeroom by way of the front door, and the removal of the safe through a side door, and the placing of same into...