Fernandez v. State

Citations

• 25 Tex. Ct. App. 538
• 8 S.W. 667
• 1888 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 96

Syllabus

<p>1. Theft—Evidence.—To support a conviction for the theft of property stolen in a foreign country and brought into this State, it devolves upon the prosecution to prove that the act committed was not only theft in this State, but was theft in the foreign country from which the property was taken and brought into this State. As sufficient proof of such fact, the trial court properly admitted in evidence a reprint of a book purporting to be the “Penal Code of the State of Goahuila, Republic of Mexico, and published by authority of said State;” the rule being that “when a code or the statutes of another State have been published by authority, and purport to have been so published, a reprint of such book is admissible in evidence without other evidence of its sanction by the government of such State.”</p> <p>S. Same—Possession of Recently Stolen Property—Charge of the Court in a theft case, if the inculpatory facts consist alone of recent possession of stolen property, explained by the accused when his possession was first challenged, is insufficient unless it explains to the jury the law applicable to such recent possession and explanation.</p> <p>3. Same—Receiving Stolen Property—Evidence in a theft ease tending to establish the offense of receiving stolen property, knowing it to be stolen, the trial court erred in omitting to charge the jury that if they believed the evidence to establish such a receiving of the stolen property, and not an actual complicity in the taking of the property, the accused could not be convicted of theft.</p> <p>L Same—Principal 'Offender—Qiizbre.—A principal offender under the law of this State, is one who, being present when the offense is actually commitsd by another, and knowing the unlawful intent of such other, aids by acts or encourages by words the party engaged in the commission of the unlawful act. Would the State, in prosecuting such an aider and abettor as a principal offender, for an offense committed primarily in a- foreign