115 Ark. 480 | Ark. | 1914
Defendant, Will Kennedy, wa,s convicted of the crime of grand larceny under an indictment charging him with stealing a cow, the property of Mrs. J. A. Parker. The evidence tends to show that the defendant and Mack Craig, who were separately in-dieted for the same offense, took the cow of Mrs. Parker out of the range and carried it up to the house of one Purcell and butchered it. 1 Purcell was a witness in the case and gave damaging testimony against the defendant. His own testimony tended to show that he accepted some of the meat from the butchered animal, but refused to accept money for the price of his participation, or rather his silence as to the commission of the crime.
The ground principally urged for reversal is that the court erred in giving an instruction on the subject of the statutory necessity for corroboration of the testimony of an accomplice. The instruction reads as follows :
“No. 3. While the defendant can not be convicted on the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice, the amount of such corroborating evidence which should be required is a question solely for the jury, and it is sufficient, if there is any such evidence, to warrant you in convicting the defendant, provided it, taken with all the other evidence in the case, convinces you of his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
It is also urged that the testimony is insufficient to sustain the verdict, in that it fails to show knowledge on the part of the defendant that the cow did not belong to Craig, who employed the defendant to assist in taking it from the range and butchering it. The testimony is not entirely clear, as it appears to us in the record, but it is legally sufficient to sustain a finding that the defendant and Craig were both guilty of the crime charged against them.
The judgment is therefore affirmed.