35 S.E.2d 321 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1945
The evidence sustains the verdict, and the court did not err in overruling the motion for new trial for any of the reasons assigned.
It is contended that there was no sufficient legal evidence to authorize the conviction. The prosecutrix testified that she had $350 in money in a pocketbook in the chifforobe in her home. She testified that the defendant knew where she kept the money because he had previously borrowed some from her, and had seen her get the money from the pocketbook kept in the chifforobe. Upon returning home from a short absence on the day in question, she found that her sister's child had come to her home with the defendant, and that the approximately $350 had disappeared from the pocketbook in the chifforobe drawer. The child testified that the defendant "went in that chifforobe and got that brown pocketbook and got a handkerchief out of it. I don't know whether or not he got any money out of the pocketbook." The child witness was six years of age. She was present in court, where both the judge and the jury had an opportunity to observe her age, her training, and her general intelligence. In Warthen v. State,
In Horton v. State,
In Johnson v. State,
The case of Gaines v. State,
In Peterson v. State,
In Johnson v. State,
In Bell v. State,
In Conoway v. State,
The Supreme Court in Gordon v. State,
The determining factor in deciding the competency of a witness to testify is not age, but rather the ability to understand the nature of an oath. The decision as to the ability on competency of the witness (child or otherwise) to testify is left to the sound discretion of the trial court, and this court will not interfere with its judgment, where it does not appear that such discretion has, *814 been manifestly abused. In the case at bar the judge passed upon the competency of the child witness of six years, and decided that she was competent. The jury gave credence to her testimony. No abuse of discretion was shown.
The evidence sustains the verdict. The court did not err in overruling the motion for new trial for any of the reasons assigned.
Judgment affirmed. Broyles, C. J., and MacIntyre, J.,concur.