Snowden v. State, 4 Div. 189

• Citation: 165 So. 410,27 Ala.App. 14
• Decision Date: 14 January 1936
• Docket Number: 4 Div. 189
• Parties: SNOWDEN v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Appeals

165 So. 410

27 Ala.App. 14

SNOWDEN v. STATE.

4 Div. 189

Court of Appeals of Alabama

January 14, 1936

Appeal from Circuit Court, Covington County; Robt. S. Reid, Judge.

Pres alias J.P., Snowden was convicted of grand larceny, and he appeals.

Affirmed.

Powell Albritton & Albritton, of Andalusia, Simmons & Simmons, of Opp, and Wm. F. Thetford, of Montgomery, for appellant.

A.A. Carmichael, Atty. Gen., and Jas. L. Screws and Silas C. Garrett, III, Asst. Attys. Gen., for the State.

SAMFORD Judge.

The injured party was one Butler, who on or about February 28th went to a house on the outskirts of Andalusia, riding in a model T Ford, for the avowed purpose of obtaining a drink of whisky. The house was occupied by a negro by the name of Ben Allen, who lived there with his wife and family. When Butler got to the house, he went in and found Snowden and a girl by the name of Willie Mae Dunlap who seemed to have been there for illicit purposes, and who were somewhat under the influence of whisky.

When Butler got to the house, he had on his person a purse in which were five $20 bills and one $5 bill. He also had a gold Elgin watch and a knife. He took a drink of whisky and then went with Snowden and the girl in his Ford car to a butcher pen some distance away, where Snowden hid a one-gallon jug of whisky after having poured a pint from the jug into a bottle and from which Butler took two or three drinks. From the butcher shop they went back to the house, Butler sat on a bench near the fire, was overcome from the whisky, and, to express it in his language, he "passed out," and from then on remembered nothing more until he found himself some distance down the road, his face and eyes bruised and bleeding, his model T Ford some distance away, and he "nearly frozen to death."

The state offered evidence by Ben Allen, the negro, and Willie Mae Dunlap, the girl, tending to prove that Snowden, upon being insulted and cursed by Butler, struck him several times in the face and robbed him of his watch and money.

Those present in the house at the time the robbery is alleged to have taken place were Butler, Ben Allen, Ben Allen's wife, Snowden, and Willie Mae Dunlap. Beside these, there was a boy, the son of Ben Allen, about eleven years old, who was in the yard and at times in the house, and at one time had in his possession the money taken from Butler.

There was evidence tending to prove that Ben Allen had participated in the crime during its commission, and, while there was no evidence tending to prove that Allen aided or abetted in the actual commission of the robbery, there was evidence tending to prove that he participated in the larceny of the money, subjecting him to a prosecution under the second count of the indictment, and therefore making him an accomplice whose testimony, uncorroborated, would not be sufficient upon which to rest a conviction.

There was not, however, any evidence justifying a prosecution of Willie Mae Dunlap either in the commission of the robbery, the larceny of the money, nor receiving any part of the stolen property. True, she was present and saw what was going on, but there is no evidence in this record that she participated in any manner in either of the crimes charged in this indictment. While there is some evidence tending to impeach her testimony, if the jury believed what she said beyond a reasonable doubt, then they were justified in returning a verdict of guilt.

The fact that Willie Mae Dunlap was jointly indicted with the defendant will not per se even raise the presumption that she was an accomplice and...