Thomas v. State

Theft of property in the first degree — habitual criminal treatment; sentence; life imprisonment.

Around 6:45 A.M., on January 3, 1980, John Wood, president of Wood Fruitticher Grocery Company, arrived at his place of business in Birmingham and discovered one of his delivery trucks was missing. He reported the theft to the police.

Later in the morning, Nasrin Murphy, Jr., an employee of the company, was driving another delivery truck when he saw the missing truck being driven by the appellant, a person he knew was not an employee of the company. Murphy knew the truck was missing and within…