135 S.E. 769 | N.C. | 1926
The storehouse was entered and the larceny was committed on 2 June, 1926, at night, and two days later the chief of police in Granite Falls saw the defendant and Charlie Craven walking down a railroad track in Burke County. Each of them carried a suitcase containing a part of the stolen property. When the officer called to them to stop Craven ran, jumped into the river, and escaped; the defendant was arrested and imprisoned, and was afterwards tried and convicted.
Upon the trial the defendant attempted to set up an alibi, and his testimony was corroborated by that of other witnesses. He now contends — the evidence was circumstantial — that he was convicted for the reason that he happened to be found in company with Craven. His explanation is that he carried the suitcase for Craven; and in his examination as a witness he gave his reason for doing so, and insisted that he had not previously been with Craven or with any of the codefendants. He offered to show by the cross-examination of the chief of police and by his own testimony that Craven, as he ran away to escape arrest, said that he was the owner of the two suitcases and the clothing they contained, and that the defendant had no knowledge of their contents. The proposed testimony was excluded and the defendant excepted.
There was no error in the exclusion of this evidence. A confession made, not by the defendant, but by a third person, is not admissible. While authority favorable to the admission of such evidence is not altogether wanting, most of the American courts exclude statements of this character. With us the principle may be regarded as definitely established. In S. v.May,
The principle is maintained in the later cases of S. v. Duncan,
The defendant excepted to the charge on the ground that the judge failed to state in a plain and correct manner the evidence in the case and to declare and explain the law arising thereon. C. S., 564. It is insisted that no definition of larceny or of the burglarious breaking was given the jury, and that the essential elements of the crimes were not explained. We have had occasion to say that a statement of the contentions of the parties, together with a simple enunciation of a legal principle is not a sufficient compliance with the statute. Watson v. Tanning Co.,
The principal question had reference to the defendant's participation in the crimes rather than to their essential elements; but as to the counts on which the defendant was convicted the constituent elements were at least inferentially given in the beginning of the charge. We find
No error. *661