United States v. Phillip M. Coggins

On this appeal, from a conviction of grand larceny, 1 we confront initially the question whether evidence establishing the theft of several artices by a single act of taking, when coupled with evidence establishing the accused’s possession of some of the articles recently thereafter, permits an inference, in the absence of satisfactory explanation of the possession, that the accused is the person who stole them all. If it does, we face the further question whether, in the circumstances of this case, the trial judge’s instructions afforded sufficient guidance to the jury as to the conditions…