23 So. 2d 920 | Miss. | 1945
Appellant was indicted for grand larceny, in the stealing of $447 in lawful money of the United States, the property of Gertis Watts. The jury returned the verdict hereinafter set out, and the trial court imposed a sentence of three years in the state penitentiary, and defendant appealed.
Appellant contends that the money found to be in her possession the day after the larceny was not identified as being any part of the money stolen from Watts. The stolen money included four twenty dollar bills. One of these bills had stamped into it 66J and another 66D. In addition, Watts testified that he had turned down and creased back very sharply one corner of the first bill, leaving the appearance that the turned-down part of the bill had been cut off. The day after the larceny the previous night he told the sheriff he could identify these two bills and described them to the sheriff as above set out. That was before the money was recovered. Appellant had in her possession a total of $53. This included two twenty dollar bills of the foregoing description. There *46 was evidence, however, that the numbers and letters on the bills were stamped thereon not for the purpose of identifying the bills but to identify the Federal Reserve Bank which issued them. But the fact remains that the two bills in the possession of appellant were of the exact description, including the creased-down corner, of two of those stolen from Watts. We think this evidence, with the other related facts as hereinafter set out, was sufficient to support the finding of the jury that these bills were identical.
It is next insisted that there is no evidence whatsoever in this record to show appellant guilty. The question is not as to the weight of the evidence. No motion was made to set aside the verdict and for a new trial on the ground that the verdict was against the great weight of the evidence, thereby giving the trial judge, who saw and heard the witnesses, an opportunity to pass on this question, as we have so often held to be necessary, before we can pass on the comparative weight of the evidence. Justice v. State,
But the case must be reversed and remanded because of the form of the verdict of the jury. That verdict was: "We, the jury, find the defendant guilty as accessor to the crime." Section 1518, Code 1942, provides: "No special form of verdict is required, and where there has been a substantial compliance with the requirements of the law in rendering a verdict, a judgment shall not be arrested or reversed for mere want of form therein." In Wilson v. State,
Reversed and remanded.