People v. Brown

Garoutte, J. The appellant was convicted of the crime of burglary, alleged by the information to have been committed in entering a certain house with intent to commit grand larceny. The entry is conceded, and also it is conceded that appellant took therefrom a certain bicycle, the property of the party named in the information, and of such a value as to constitute grand larceny.

[68]The appellant is a boy of seventeen years of age, and for a few days immediately prior to the taking of the bicycle was staying at the place from which the machine was taken, working for his board. He took the stand as a witness, and testified:

“I took the wheel to get even with the boy, and of course I did n’t intend to keep it. I just wanted to get even with him. The boy was throwing oranges at me in the evening, and he would not stop when I told him to, and it made me mad, and I left Yount’s house Saturday morning. I thought I would go back and take the boy’s wheel. He had a wheel, the one I had the fuss with. Instead of getting hold of his, I got Frank’s, but I intended to take it back Sunday night; but before I got back they caught me. I took it down by the grove, and put it on the ground, and covered it with brush, and crawled in, and Frank came and hauled off the brush and said: ‘What are you doing here’? Then I told him .... I covered myself up in the brush so that they could not find me until evening, until I could take it back. I did not want them to find me. I expected to remain there during the day, and not go back until evening.”

Upon the foregoing state of facts the court gave the jury the following instruction: “ I think it is not necessary to say very much to you in this case. I may say, generally, that I think counsel for the defense here stated to you in this argument very fairly the principles of law governing this case, except in one particular. In defining to you the crime of grand larceny he says it is essential that the taking of it must be felonious. That is true; the taking with the intent to deprive the owner of it; but he adds the conclusion that you must find that the taker intended to deprive him of it permanently. I do not think that is the law. I think in this case, for example, if the defendant took this bicycle, we will say for the purpose of riding twenty-five miles, for the purpose of enabling him to get away, and then left it for another to get it, and intended to do nothing else except [69]