People v. . Otis

Andrews, J.:

The appellant, having been indicted for stealing a quantity of whiskey, was convicted of petit larceny. The whiskey in question was unlawfully possessed under the provisions of the Rational Prohibition Act. Under such circumstances may the conviction be sustained ?

Larceny is the illegal taking of some article of value with the intent to deprive the true owner of his property or to appropriate it to the use of the taker or of another. (Penal Law, § 1290.) Value in and ownership of the thing taken are essential elements of the crime. Here the existence of either of these…