State v. Nicholson, 16623

• Decision Date: 05 May 1952
• Docket Number: No. 16623,16623
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE v. NICHOLSON et al.

Page 632

70 S.E.2d 632

221 S.C. 399

STATE v. NICHOLSON et al.

No. 16623.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

May 5, 1952.

John B. Baltzegar, Norway, Basil Hall, Columbia, for appellant.

Julian S. Wolfe, Sol., Orangeburg, for respondent.

BAKER, Chief Justice.

The appellants, Jesse James Nicholson and James Teal, along with others, were indicted at the May, 1951, term of the Court of General Sessions for Orangeburg County, said indictment containing five counts, in which (1) Nicholson and Elliott Dean were charged with breaking and entering with intent to commit a crime, (2) Nicholson, Dean and Teal were charged with grand larceny, (3) Nicholson, Dean, Teal and Katherine Bagwell were charged with receiving stolen goods, (4) Nicholson, Dean, Teal and Bagwell were charged with conspiracy, and (5) Teal and Bargwell were charged with being accessories after the fact.

The case was tried at the September, 1951, term of the Court of General Sessions for Orangeburg County. A verdict of not guilty was directed as to Katherine Bagwell, and Dean, who has since died, was granted a new trial.

There was submitted to the jury the counts in the indictment which charged the appellant Nicholson with breaking and entering with intent to commit a crime, and with larceny; and the count in the indictment charging the appellant Teal with being an accessory after the fact. The appellant Nicholson was convicted of breaking and entering with intent to commit a crime, and larceny, and the appellant Teal was convicted of being an accessory after the fact. Nicholson was sentenced to serve three years, and Teal thirty months, and we presume that these sentences were in the usual form.

Motions were made for a directed verdict of not guilty at the conclusion of the testimony of the State, and a motion for a new trial was made after the conviction, but prior to the imposition of the respective sentences. Both motions were refused as to these appellants.

We will first consider whether there was sufficient evidence against the appellant Nicholson to require the trial Judge to submit the case to the jury as to the larceny of the adding machine. We will keep in mind that on an appeal from the refusal of the Court to direct a verdict of not guilty, or grant a motion for a new trial in a criminal case, the evidence and the inferences which may reasonably be drawn therefrom, must be viewed in the light most favorable to the State. It is unnecessary to cite authority for this postulate.

On or immediately prior to the night of April 9, 1951, there was taken from the Springfield Centralized High School, in Orangeburg County, an Allen Wales adding machine of the value of at least One hundred and twenty-five ($125.00) Dollars, the property of said school. This adding machine was thereafter found in the cabin occupied by a Miss Bagwell at Strait's Tourist Camp on Highway #1 near Columbia, S. C. The record discloses that Miss Bagwell came into possession of the machine through James Teal (one of the appellants here). Admitted in evidence, and properly so, was an oral statement (confession) made by this appellant (Nicholson) in the presence of several officers of the law, including Sheriff Reed of Orangeburg County, and one of his deputies, 'that on Monday, April 9th., 1951, that himself, Jesse Nicholson, and Elliott Dean went to Springfield, South Carolina to the school house over there, he stayed in the car, Mr. Dean got out and went into the school house and brought this adding machine out and put it in the car. He said on the night of April 10th., they carried it to Columbia, and turned it over to Mr. Teal.'

While when the appellant testified in his own behalf, he denied any knowledge of the machine, and specifically denied making any such statement to the officers of the law, the testimony hereinabove set forth required the trial Judge to submit the case to the jury, and he committed no error in refusing the motion for a direction of verdict of not guilty as to the larceny of the adding machine.

The appellant Nicholson was also convicted to breaking and entering with intent to commit a crime.

The testimony on the part of the State is that the doors to the school house were not locked, and that there was no evidence of an entry to the building otherwise than through a door, but the record is silent as to whether the doors were even closed. The mere turning of a knob in order to open a door would under the law constitute a breaking, but the record does not inform us if such was necessary in order to enter the building. It would therefore appear that the trial Judge should have granted appellant's motion for a directed verdict on this count.

We will now consider whether there was sufficient evidence against the appellant James Teal on the count in the indictment charging him with being an accessory after the fact to warrant the trial Judge in submitting this issue to the jury.

The only evidence in the case against this appellant which can be considered is that while the officers of the law were out at Strait's Tourist Camp, where Miss Bagwell occupied a cabin and where the subject machine had been found, the appellant and Miss Bagwell drove up in an automobile, and, upon being questioned, appellant told the officers that...