State v. Goodnight

Harshbarger, Justice:

A two-count Marion County Grand Jury indictment charged James Goodnight with larceny of a $6,000 Gravely tractor belonging to John Carpenter, and with receiving this tractor as stolen property. The trial court directed a verdict on the receiving stolen property count, * and a jury found Goodnight guilty of attempted grand larceny. He was sentenced to one year in the county jail and fined $500.00.

The tractor was taken from church property where Carpenter had been using it to mow the lawn; but Fairmont police found it unattended in woods about three miles from the church,…