Porris v. State
| Decision Date | 15 July 1926 |
| Docket Number | Criminal 624 |
| Citation | 247 P. 1101,30 Ariz. 442 |
| Parties | ADOLFO PORRIS and MANUEL SANCHEZ, Appellants, v. STATE, Respondent |
| Court | Arizona Supreme Court |
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of the County of Maricopa. M. T. Phelps, Judge.
Affirmed.
Mr. V L. Hash, for Appellants.
Mr John W. Murphy, Attorney General, and Mr. Earl Anderson and Mr. Frank J. Duffy, Assistant Attorneys General, for the State.
On the 17th of January, 1925, one Mrs. Garbaccio lived at 817 North Ninth Avenue in the city of Phoenix. That evening, shortly after 6 o'clock, she, with her daughter and some relatives left the house, and when they returned about midnight, found it had been ransacked and a great many articles of clothing and jewelry were missing which had been there when they left. Two days later defendant Sanchez shipped a trunk to El Paso. The officers had had him under observation for some time and arrested him January 20th. The waybill for the trunk being found in his possession, the officers took steps to have the trunk returned to Phoenix, and upon its receipt there were found therein a number of articles stolen from the house of Mrs. Garbaccio. It also appeared that at the time of the arrest Sanchez had in his possession a bunch of keys of the type called skeleton and master keys. As a result of the arrest of Sanchez, the officers went to the house of defendant Porris and there found a number of other things which had been taken from the Garbaccio house, together with some keys of the same type as those found on Sanchez. Porris attempted to explain his possession of the stolen goods by saying he had received them in payment for some work he had done upon a car for a Negro, and denied any knowledge of the keys. Sanchez claimed the trunk belonged to his wife, and that he had no knowledge of its contents. The jury returned a verdict of burglary in the first degree against both defendants, and the matter is before us for review.
There are some five assignments of error which we will consider in their order. The first is that the evidence does not sustain the verdict. It is contended that the only circumstance tending to connect defendants, or either of them, with the commission of the alleged crime, is that the stolen goods were found in their possession. So far as the defendant Sanchez is concerned, the evidence showed not only that he had shipped a trunk containing some of the stolen goods, but that he carried with him a bunch of keys of a class generally used by burglars, and that there were also in the trunk goods stolen at about the same time and from the same general vicinity. We think this is ample to warrant the jury in returning a verdict of guilty as to him. It is true he claimed that his wife packed the trunk and he knew nothing of the contents, but the possession of the waybill established sufficiently that the trunk was in his possession at the time it was shipped, and it was for the jury to determine whether or not they believed his explanation in regard to his lack of knowledge of the contents thereof.
So far as the defendant Porris is concerned, the only circumstance in addition to the finding of the stolen articles which would bear on his guilt or innocence was his explanation of the way they came into his possession, and the keys found with them. It is well settled that, while evidence of the recent unexplained possession of stolen property is not sufficient, standing alone, to sustain a conviction of larceny, yet it is equally true that, where goods have been feloniously taken and they are immediately or soon thereafter found in the possession of a person who gives a false account or refuses to give any account of the manner in which he came into possession thereof, proof of such possession and conduct on the part of the accused is sufficient to support a verdict of guilty, and, if the evidence in addition shows the goods have been feloniously taken by means of a burglary, it will support a conviction of the latter offense. People v. Howard, 58 Cal.App. 340, 208 P. 1022; People v. Smith, 86 Cal. 238, 24 P. 988.
Defendant Porris, when arrested, stated to the officers that a Negro had come along by his house and asked him to make some repairs on his automobile; that he made them, and the Negro in payment therefor gave him the stolen goods, together with a lot of other personal property. The Negro did not appear at the trial nor...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Hunter
...is sufficient to support a verdict of burglary. State v. Pederson, supra; Murphy v. State, 50 Ariz. 481, 73 P.2d 110; Porris and Sanchez v. State, 30 Ariz. 442, 247 P. 1101; Taylor v. Territory, 7 Ariz. 234, 64 P. 423; People v. Blackburn, 65 Cal.App.2d 538, 151 P.2d 24; Ballard v. State, 6......
-
State v. Jackson, 1593
...State v. Perez, 94 Ariz. 290, 383 P.2d 745. The criminal intent, of course, may be established by circumstantial evidence. Porris v. State, 30 Ariz. 442, 247 P. 1101; and see People v. Johnson, 191 Cal.App.2d 694, 13 Cal.Rptr. 1; Malone v. State, 169 Ind. 72, 81 N.E. Among other circumstanc......
-
State v. Scarborough
...might infer the guilt of a defendant, but that this circumstance, standing alone, is insufficient to sustain a conviction. Porris v. State, 30 Ariz. 442, 247 P. 1101; Allen v. State, 26 Ariz. 317, 225 P. 332. As we read the subject instruction, it appears to state the law correctly for in e......
-
State v. Woody
...will also support a conviction of the latter offense. Murphy v. State, 50 Ariz. 481, 483, 73 P.2d 110, 111 (1937); Porris v. State, 30 Ariz. 442, 445, 247 P. 1101, 1102 (1926); State v. Valencia, 2 Ariz.App. 301, 408 P.2d 234 The defendant next complains the jury was not instructed that, be......