193 S.E. 388 | N.C. | 1937
The appellant was convicted upon a bill of indictment charging that Earl Miller ". . . 2 cases of Camel cigarettes, 2 cases of Chesterfield cigarettes of the value of two hundred and five dollars aforesaid, of the goods, chattels and moneys of the said Jake Rendleman before then feloniously stolen, taken and carried away, feloniously did receive and have . . . the said Earl Miller . . . then and there well knowing said goods, chattels and moneys to have been feloniously stolen, taken and carried away, contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided." *362
The appellant assigns as error the following excerpt from the charge: "The term `knowledge,' gentlemen of the jury, is not so limited in its scope as to mean that a defendant must know to the extent of actually having seen the property stolen, but it means, gentlemen of the jury, that if the facts, the circumstances and the surroundings of the transactions at the time the property is received are such as to cause the defendant toreasonably believe or know that the property was stolen, then, gentlemen of the jury, that would constitute knowledge within the purview and intent of the statute. Using that as a definition, gentlemen of the jury, if you shall find and find beyond a reasonable doubt, the burden being on the State to prove it, that the defendant, Earl Miller, received cigarettes which had theretofore been stolen from Jake Rendleman, the prosecuting witness, and you further find beyond a reasonable doubt that at the time of so doing he knew that the same had theretofore been stolen, then, gentlemen of the jury, the court instructs you that it would be your duty to render a verdict of guilty of receiving stolen property." We are constrained to sustain this assignment of error.
C. S., 4250, under which the bill of indictment was drawn, provides that the person charged shall receive the stolen goods "knowing the same to have been feloniously stolen or taken," thereby making guilty knowledge one of the essential elements of the offense, which the law requires to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt as a condition precedent to conviction.
S. v. Stathos,
For the error assigned the defendant is entitled to a new trial, and it is so ordered.
New trial.