State v. Rickenbaker

• Decision Date: 01 July 1938
• Docket Number: 14712.
• Citation: 198 S.E. 43,187 S.C. 448
• Parties: STATE v. RICKENBAKER et al.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

198 S.E. 43

187 S.C. 448

STATE v. RICKENBAKER et al.

No. 14712.

Supreme Court of South Carolina

July 1, 1938

Appeal from General Sessions Circuit Court of Orangeburg County; B Duncan Bellinger, Judge.

A. H Rickenbaker and J. T. Rickenbaker were convicted of buying and selling goods and chattels knowing them to have been stolen, and they appeal.

Affirmed.

Zeigler & Brailsford, of Orangeburg, and C. T. Graydon, of Columbia for appellants.

A. J Hydrick, Sol., and N. R. Smith, both of Orangeburg, for the State.

BAKER Justice.

The indictment in this case charged the appellants with buying and receiving goods and chattels well knowing the same to have been stolen. Upon conviction and sentence, they appeal to this Court, and by their several exceptions raise four questions, stated by appellants to be:

"1. Should a verdict for the defendants have been directed upon the ground that the elements of the offense were not made out by the testimony?

2. Should a verdict for the defendants have been directed as to the charge of receiving stolen goods of the value of more than $20.00?

3. Was the remark made to the jury by the presiding Judge at the commencement of the recess hour reversible error?

4. Was there error in the charge of the presiding Judge?"

The first two questions will be discussed together.

The testimony on behalf of the State was to the effect that the store of J. W. Collier near the southern incorporated limits of the City of Orangeburg was broken into on the night of January 25, 1937, by Mannie Griffin and Nathaniel Smith, negro boys, who stole therefrom thirty-six cartons of cigarettes, twenty-eight cartons being of the better grades, and the remainder of the cheaper grades. The wholesale price of the better grades, was $1.43 a carton, and the cheaper grades, $1.06 a carton. These prices included the revenue stamps, State and Federal.

The appellant, A. H. Rickenbaker, conducted a filling station and small store near the City of Orangeburg, and the appellant J. T. Rickenbaker, a brother of A. H. Rickenbaker, clerked for him. Near the place of business of A. H. Rickenbaker a negro by the name of Osiah Slater also conducted a small filling station and store in a building rented from A. H. Rickenbaker, and in this store he had a "picalo" (also known as a "nickelodium"), and A. H. Rickenbaker and Slater divided the money out of this machine. There was a path leading from the rear of the Slater filling station to the filling station and store of A. H. Rickenbaker. The negro boys hereinabove referred to approached Slater with reference to selling him cigarettes, and Slater in turn took the matter up with A. H. Rickenbaker, who told him he would take all the cigarettes he could get at seventy-five (75) cents for the higher priced cigarettes and fifty (50) cents for the lower priced ones, and if he was not at his store when he (Slater) brought the cigarettes, he (A. H. Rickenbaker) would arrange to leave the money there from them. When the negro boys stole the cigarettes from Mr. Collier's store they put them in a crocus sack and hid them. The next night they took them to Slater's place, or to the back thereof, and went in and told Slater that they had some cigarettes. He had told the boys that he would give them $16 for the cigarettes and upon delivery of the cigarettes to him he went down the path with the cigarettes towards the store of A. H. Rickenbaker, was gone about twenty or twenty-five minutes, and when he returned gave the two negro boys $16. Slater testified that he had a conversation with Mannie Griffin, one of the boys who stole the cigarettes, and as a result of this conversation he saw A. H. Rickenbaker and told him that these boys had some cigarettes and asked him if he wanted them, and that A. H. Rickenbaker said he did at the price above stated. On the next night these boys came back to Slater's place of business, stating that they had the cigarettes and when he counted them they amounted to $16 at the price A. H. Rickenbaker had said he would pay for them; that with the exception of three cartons which Slater appropriated while on the way to deliver the cigarettes, he carried the cigarettes in a crocus sack over to the side door of the store of A. H. Rickenbaker where he delivered them to J. T. Rickenbaker and was paid $16, which he later turned over to the negro boys; that on the next day, Wednesday, he asked Mr. A. H. Rickenbaker if he got the cigarettes and he said yes and...