87 N.Y. 508 | NY | 1882
The defendant was convicted at the Onondaga Sessions, of petit larceny, under an indictment, charging him with stealing certain articles of bedding and linen, at Marcellus, Onondaga county, the property of one Charles Hooper. The evidence disclosed that the articles alleged to have been stolen, were taken from the prosecutor's house by one Hardacre, in a box, in which they had been placed by the prosecutor's wife, and sent to Albany, and there taken to rooms engaged by the defendant, which were subsequently occupied by him and the prosecutor's wife. The judge charged the jury, that if the defendant was not present at the prosecutor's house when the goods were taken, he could not be convicted. The fact that the prisoner was present when the goods were taken was, as the verdict shows, found by the jury, and if any evidence bearing upon this point was improperly admitted against the defendant's objection, the conviction was properly reversed. There is no direct evidence that the defendant was present when the box was taken. The prosecutor was called as a witness for the people. On his cross-examination by the defendant's counsel, he testified, among other things, that after his wife left his house, he went to Hardacre, who told him that the defendant, in the August previous (some months prior to the alleged larceny), took the prosecutor's wife out riding. On the re-examination of the witness, he was asked by the district attorney to state the conversation between Hardacre and himself. The defendant's counsel made a general objection to the question, which was overruled by the court, and the defendant's counsel excepted. The witness, before proceeding to state the conversation, was asked, who was with him at the time, and he answered, "Hoyt Gallup." He was then again asked to state the conversation. The defendant's counsel again objected, and the objection was again overruled, and the defendant's counsel excepted. The witness then testified, among other things, that Hardacre, in answer to the inquiry whether the defendant was present when the box was taken, said, "that he helped to put the box in the wagon." It is manifest that the declaration of Hardacre was inadmissible, as original *512
evidence of the fact stated. The defendant was not present at the time, and the declaration was mere hearsay, and related to the vital point upon which the conviction turned. The counsel for the people seeks to justify the admission of the evidence, on the ground that it was a part of the same conversation as to which the witness had testified on his cross-examination by the defendant. But the remark of Hardacre, brought out on the cross-examination, related to a wholly distinct and independent matter, of no materiality whatever. The people were not entitled to introduce material and damaging declarations of Hardacre, which had no relation to the previous evidence, upon the claim, that it was a part of the same conversation. When a statement forming part of a conversation is given in evidence by one party, whatever was said in the same conversation, tending to explain or qualify that statement, may be given in evidence by the other, but the latter cannot give in evidence, distinct and independent statements in the same conversation, in no way connected with the statement proved by his adversary, on the ground that he had opened the subject, by his examination. (1 Phil. Ev. 416; Rouse
v. Whited,
We think the judgment of the General Term should be affirmed.
All concur.
Judgment affirmed. *514