Smith v. State
| Decision Date | 13 November 1970 |
| Docket Number | No. 45697,No. 2,45697,2 |
| Parties | J. B. SMITH v. The STATE |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Miles B. Sams, East Point, for appellant.
Lewis R. Slaton, Dist. Atty., Stephen A. Land, John A. Nuckolls, Tony H. Hight, Atlanta, for appellee.
Syllabus Opinion by the Court
The defendant appeals from the overruling of his motion for a new trial after conviction and sentence for arson in the second degree. The sole issue before this court is the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction.
The defendant was the operator of a restaurant in Hapeville. The building in which his business was located was destroyed by fire during the early morning hours on Tuesday, October 7, 1969. It had been closed since the preceding Saturday. When observed by policemen at about 4 a.m. and 4:05 a.m. there was no evidence of fire in or around the building. About 4:05 a.m. a service station attendant on duty across the street from the restaurant saw the defendant, who was wearing dark trousers, a white shirt, and a red sweater, drive up to the restaurant in a 1962 Ford, leave the automobile, and enter the restaurant. He remained inside about five minutes without turning on any lights. The witness then heard an automobile door slam and saw the defendant drive away in the automobile. Some two or three minutes later this witness heard a sound which he described as like someone 'tipping' over gravel, and also as the sound like dry wood burning. He continued to hear this sound and looked across the street and saw that the building was on fire. He notified the fire department at 4:17 a.m. The fire rapidly consumed the building despite the efforts of firemen who arrived moments later.
A trained and experienced arson investigator from the State Fire Marshal's office examined the scene on October 9, 1969, and located 'two very definite hot spots' in the kitchen and storage room area, and reached the conclusion that the building had been destroyed by two separate and very hot, fast-moving fires. The evidence of the burning which he viewed indicated that 'something foreign had been introduced' at a low level, and tended to eliminate a high level origin, as would be true of fire caused by an electrical shortage.
The defendant, in an unsworn statement to the jury, insisted that he was at his residence in bed and asleep until he received notice of the fire about 4:30 a.m. He...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Patterson v. State, A91A1487
...be depended upon not only to show the guilt of the accused, but to establish the corpus delicti.... [Cits.]" Smith v. State, 122 Ga.App. 882, 883-884, 179 S.E.2d 261. When, as here, an enumeration of error is based upon the overruling of a motion for directed verdict of acquittal, which was......
-
Altman v. State, 60616
...as charged in Indictment No. 1548. See Code Ann. § 26-1402 (Ga.L.1968), pp. 1249, 1283; 1976, pp. 1497, 1498; Smith v. State, 122 Ga.App. 882, 884, 179 S.E.2d 261; Whitten v. State, 143 Ga.App. 768, 771, 240 S.E.2d 107; Murden v. State, 146 Ga.App. 51(1), 245 S.E.2d I simply cannot agree to......
-
Andrews v. State
...v. State, 85 Ga.App. 129, 133(2), 68 S.E.2d 393 (1951). Accord, Reese v. State, 94 Ga.App. 387, 94 S.E.2d 741 (1956); Smith v. State, 122 Ga.App. 882, 179 S.E.2d 261 (1970); Whitten v. State, 143 Ga.App. 768, 240 S.E.2d 107 (1977). But see Cook v. State, 146 Ga.App. 353, 246 S.E.2d 347 Appl......
-
Glover v. State
...only the incidence of a crime of arson which could have possibly been committed by Myers and Fredrick. In Smith v. State of Georgia (1970), 122 Ga.App. 882, 179 S.E.2d 261, the Georgia Court of Appeals dealt with a fact situation even more analogous to the one here at issue and found the ev......