State v. Woods

• Decision Date: 13 November 1917
• Docket Number: 4026.
• Parties: STATE v. WOODS et al.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

169 P. 39

54 Mont. 193

STATE v. WOODS et al.

No. 4026.

Supreme Court of Montana

November 13, 1917

Appeal from District Court, Fallon County; Daniel S. O'Hern Judge.

Denver Woods and another were convicted of grand larceny, and appeal from the judgments of conviction, and from an order denying their motions for new trial. Affirmed.

Joseph Hodgson, of Baker, and Loud & Leavitt, of Miles City, for appellants.

S. C Ford, of Helena, and Frank Woody, of Butte, for the State.

BRANTLY C.J.

The defendants were tried jointly and convicted of the crime of grand larceny, in the district court of Fallon county. The court pronounced separate judgments upon them, sentencing each of them to undergo a term of imprisonment in the state prison. They have appealed from the judgments and from an order denying their motion for a new trial. They challenge the integrity of the judgments upon the single ground that the verdict is contrary to the evidence: First, in that taken as a whole, it does not disclose the commission of a larceny; and, second, that, though this be conceded, it does not disclose that the taking occurred in Fallon county.

The subject of the larceny is described in the information as three heifer and two bull calves of the Herford breed not branded, of the value of $175, and the property of H. W Sparks the prosecuting witness. They are alleged to have been feloniously taken from the possession of Sparks in Fallon county on or about August 14, 1916.

Sparks resides on section 34, township 9 north of range 60 east, in Fallon county, about 4 1/2 miles west of the boundary line between the state of Montana and the state of North Dakota. In August, 1916, he was the owner of cattle the accustomed range of which was to the south and east of his residence toward the Dakota line. Among them were five cows with the calves described in the information, which ranged on and near section 30 in fractional township 9 north of range 61 east also in Fallon county. The watering place to which these cows with their calves usually resorted is a reservoir on North Cannonball creek, in the northwest quarter of the last-named section, about 2 1/2 miles west of the state line. The defendants reside on a ranch in North Dakota, about 2 1/2 miles east of the state line. They were engaged in raising cattle and horses and in taking care of cattle for others for hire. On August 20th the calves in question were found by Sparks in the possession of the defendants on a ranch about a mile east of the village of Marmath in North Dakota. This ranch lies about 15 miles southeast from that of defendants and about 8 miles on a direct line east of the state boundary line. At...