Smith v. State

OPINION

DALLY, Commissioner.

This is an appeal from a conviction for felony theft; the punishment assessed was imprisonment for four years. The appellant insists that the evidence merely shows he possessed the stolen “friction saw” and that it does not support his conviction for the theft of that saw.

Evidence that a defendant had the personal, unexplained possession of property recently stolen is sufficient to raise a presumption or inference of guilt and to sustain his conviction for the theft of that property. See, e. g., Barnes v. United States, 412 U.S. 837, 93 S.Ct. 2357, 37 L.Ed.2d 380…