State v. Hamlet

WELLS, Judge.

Defendant makes a single argument on this appeal: that the breaking or entering and larceny convictions must be reversed because the state relied entirely on the doctrine of recent possession to support these convictions, and there was no direct evidence of recent possession.

The doctrine of recent possession:

[I]s simply a rule of law that, upon an indictment for larceny, possession of recently stolen property raises a presumption of the possessor’s guilt of the larceny of such property. . . . Furthermore, when there is sufficient evidence that a building has been broken into and…