Crawley v. State

HERRMANN, Justice:

These are appeals from convictions of larceny. The determinative question before us is whether the trial court erred in permitting application to these appellants of the rule that guilt of the theft may be inferred from the unexplained possession of recently stolen goods.

The appellants, James Crawley and Robert L. Dorsey, together with Jerry Samuels who did not appeal, were tried jointly on charges of grand larceny and conspiracy to commit grand larceny. The evidence adduced by the State established the following:

On April 19, 1966, at about 8:00 A.M., a truck of a piano…