State v. Stotts

MOLLOY, Judge.

This appeal questions the propriety of failing to instruct a jury in a criminal action that, before there could be conviction on circumstantial evidence, each fact essential to complete a chain of circumstantial evidence must be established beyond a reasonable doubt and such evidence must exclude every rational hypothesis of innocence.

The defendant was charged with burglary and grand theft and convicted on both counts. The evidence establishes that the defendant was in the victim’s home as a guest on the day preceding the offense. Two days later, he was apprehended in Dallas,…