Pounds v. State, 51458
| Decision Date | 14 November 1975 |
| Docket Number | No. 1,No. 51458,51458,1 |
| Citation | 136 Ga.App. 852,222 S.E.2d 629 |
| Parties | M. L. POUNDS v. The STATE |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Grogan, Jones & Layfield, John C. Swearingen, Jr., Columbus, for appellant.
E. Mullins Whisnant, Dist. Atty., Talbotton, for appellee.
Michael Pounds was convicted of theft by taking and he appeals, complaining principally of the overruling of his motion for new trial on the general grounds. The subject of the taking was a vacant mobile home belonging to Ed Brooks which defendant admitted towing away from its lot in Talbot County and storing at a trailer park in Columbus which he leased. His explanation at trial was that Gwendolyn Burgman, a woman he met beside a road, had given him a check for $125 to move it and that he thought he had been authorized to do so. However, Ms. Burgman was not produced as a witness at trial, and the check was never tendered for payment. There was evidence that when the trailer was moved the plumbing was not disconnected but cut and ripped out, the sewage line was pulled loose out of the ground, and the air conditioning duct work was ripped out and scattered all over the lot.
In rebuttal to defendant's explanation, Sharon Hammrich, an employee at the trailer park, testified about a conversation between defendant and his sublessee at the park: The witness also testified that defendant had said that a man, rather than a woman, offered him $125 to move the trailer.
The jury chose not to believe defendant's explanation and returned the guilty verdict. Held:
1. The court charged the jury that recent possession of the stolen trailer was a circumstance from which a factual inference of guilt of the crime could arise and would authorize a conviction unless the defendant's possession was explained to the satisfaction of the jury. This charge has been approved many times (see, e.g., Aiken v. State, 226 Ga. 840, 843(2), 178 S.E.2d 202; Horton v. State, 228 Ga. 690, 692, 187 S.E.2d 677; Byrd v. Hopper, 234 Ga. 248, 215 S.E.2d 251, and this court is not in a position under the evidence here to control the jury's rejection of his explanation. Brown v. State, 125 Ga.App. 300, 187 S.E.2d 301; Brown v. State, 133 Ga.App. 56, 58(5), 209 S.E.2d 721. Accordingly enumerations of error 1 through 8, dealing with the sufficiency of the evidence, are without merit.
2. The complained-of charge on intent was approved in West v. State, 129 Ga.App. 271, 272(1), 199 S.E.2d 354 and cases cited. Enumeration 11 is without merit.
3. Enumeration of error 12 is not supported by the record, as corrected and supplemented, which shows without dispute that the...
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Carpenter v. State, 52882
...well-established law of this state. See Aiken v. State, 226 Ga. 840, 178 S.E.2d 202; Scott v. State, 122 Ga. 138, 50 S.E. 49; Pounds v. State, 136 Ga.App. 852(1, 4), 222 S.E.2d 629; Taylor v. State, 118 Ga.App. 605, 164 S.E.2d 876; Mathews v. State, 103 Ga.App. 743(2), 120 S.E.2d 359. It ha......
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Clark v. State, 75286
...the sentencing hearing, we must reverse and remand to the trial court for a new trial on the issue of punishment. Pounds v. State, 136 Ga.App. 852(6), 222 S.E.2d 629 (1975). Compare Welborn v. State, 166 Ga.App. 214, 303 S.E.2d 755 (1983) (where the trial court sustained objections to preju......
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Dorsey v. Willis, 33750
...statute to consider In aggravation mere rumors concerning the conduct of the defendant. Ingram v. State, supra; Pounds v. State, 136 Ga.App. 852, 853(6), 222 S.E.2d 629 (1975). This court does not reach the questions of whether or not the trial court's consideration of the co-conspirator's ......
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Haugabrook v. State
...explanation was not adequate and the evidence presented by the State was ample to support the verdict. See Pounds v. State, 136 Ga.App. 852, 222 S.E.2d 629 (1975). Judgment DEEN, P. J., and MARSHALL, J., concur. 1 Haugabrook v. State, 238 Ga. 722, 235 S.E.2d 385 (1977). ...