State v. Gray

• Decision Date: 05 May 1890
• Citation: State v. Gray, 106 N.C. 734, 11 S.E. 422 (N.C. 1890)
• Parties: STATE v. GRAY.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

11 S.E. 422

106 N.C. 734

STATE v. GRAY.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

May 5, 1890

Indictment for larceny, tried at spring term, 1890, of Watauga superior court, before BYNUM, J. The defendant was charged with stealing a sheep, and the exception taken on the trial was to the instructions of the court to the jury, upon the question of sufficiency of the evidence as to asportation. The testimony of Woody, the prosecutor, was that he went to his field where his flock of sheep were grazing, and saw the defendant in an old one-room house upon the premises, with three or four sheep, and also saw him catch one of them, and thereupon the defendant leaped from a window, and fled. Some plank had been placed across the door of the house to prevent the sheep from entering, and when witness got there upon this occasion, and after defendant escaped, the witness discovered that the plank had been taken down, and differently arranged from what they were when he last saw them, but still securing the door. One of the sheep found in the house had been hobbled, and witness found that the hobble had been cut from one of the feet. The defendant's counsel asked the court to charge the jury that there was not sufficient evidence of asportation. This was refused, and the jury were instructed that, if they found the facts to be that the sheep were grazing in the field, and defendant drove them into the house, and cut the cord...