Henson v. StateHenson v. State
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Appellant Charles Eugene Henson was convicted of burglary and grand larceny. He was also found guilty of violation of the habitual criminal statute. The jury fixed his punishment at six years for burglary and at four years for grand larceny. On appeal it is urged (1) that Instruction No. 10 was prejudicial; (2) that the State’s evidence of a previous conviction was insufficient; and (3) that Henson was entitled to a directed verdict for insufficiency of the evidence.
Because of the attack on the sufficiency of the evidence we shall summarize somewhat in detail the State’s proof. (The defense offered no testimony.) On the night of September 3, 1969, Ike Hall parked and locked his car and walked two blocks to the sports arena in Fort Smith to attend the night’s program of wrestling. Russell Howell, a funeral home employee, left the wrestling matches about nine o’clock and walked near the parking lot. At that point he observed three white boys acting suspiciously. When he approached and asked them to stop they ran away. At the trial he was unable to identify either them or the object one of them was carrying, but said he did observe that the object resembled a tape recorder.
Mr. Howell returned to the arena and reported the incident. An announcement was made to the audience and that was how the prosecuting witness learned his car has been burglarized. Officer John Etter was on patrol and observed a car driving in a reckless manner. That was about nine-thirty o’clock. The officer caused the vehicle to be stopped. While checking the driver’s license Officer Elkins observed appellant lean over and try to cover a stereo tape player located on the floor of the back seat. The officer contacted headquarters and ascertained that such a player had been reported stolen,
In attacking the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict, appellant says that absent the testimony of the accomplices there is nothing more than a suspicion that appellant was guilty. In felony cases a defendant cannot be convicted upon the testimony of an accomplice “unless corroborated by other evidence tending to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense.”
We now consider Instruction No. 10, which appellant urges was prejudicial. That instruction first advised the jury of the forms of verdicts, both as to a finding of guilty or not guilty; of course the forms contained no provisions for punishment because that phase of the case would be considered separately in the event a verdict of guilty was returned. Then the instruction concluded with this sentence: “When you return either of those verdicts into court, then you may or may not have another verdict to consider.” Appellant complains that the quoted language “told the jury that the defendant had heretofore been convicted of a previous, offense.” That interpretation is clearly without any reasonable basis. Apparently the court was trying to
Appellant’s final point concerns his conviction as an habitual criminal. The State introduced a certified copy of a judgment and sentence from the circuit court of Pope County, Arkansas. It was styled “State of Arkansas vs. Charles Haggard a/k/a Charles Henson.” The text of the judgment carried the same designation. Appellant contends that the recited evidence of prior conviction was insufficient to show that he is one and the same person as the defendant who was convicted in Pope County.
It is provided by statute that the certified copy of a record of former conviction and judgment against the person indicted may be. introduced in a subsequent trial of that party; and that it shall be prima facie evidence of a prior conviction and judgment of imprisonment.
Affirmed.