State v. Nano

This is an appeal from a conviction of theft in the first degree. Defendant assigns, inter alia, as error, the trial court’s overruling of defendant’s objection to certain testimony as contravening the “best evidence rule” (ORS 41.640) infra. We agree.

The essential facts are: At 9:30 a.m. on March 23, 1974, a shipping clerk delivered a box to the calculator department of a Salem store. The evidence suggested but was not conclusive that the box contained calculators. At 10:30 a.m. the same day, the store manager noticed there were no clerks in the calculator department. He looked behind the…