Synes v. State

Citations

• 78 Fla. 167

Syllabus

<p>1. Where a court or judge under the criminal laws of the State sentences tor adjudges a person to pay a fine or fine and costs of prosecution, the alternative sentence for non-payment of the fine should be imprisonment in the county j¡ail, and not the State prison for a period of time.</p> <p>2. A bailee of property tof which he has the lawful posession cannot commit larceny of it; but if possession is obtained by trick, device or fraud with intent to appropriate the property to his own use, the owner or custodian intending • to part with possession only, the bailee commits larceny when he subsequently appropriates the property.</p> <p>S. A witness testified that he had the custody of an automobile, that he kept it in his shop where it was undergoing Some repairs, that it was removed from the shop and he did not of his own Knowledge know who removed it nor how it was removed, Held insufficient to show lack of consent to its removal on his part, and insufficient to show larceny of the vehicle on the part of the defendant.</p> <p>4. Before the admission of an incriminating fact by a person under arrest charged with a crime is receivable in evidence against him, it must affirmatively appear that the admission was voluntarily made.</p> <p>5. Error in the admission of evidence which is biarmless is not ground for reversal.</p> <p>6. Section 3079 General Statutes of Florida prohibits the prosecuting attorney in a criminal case from commenting upon the failure of the defendant to testify in his own behalf. If the accused does testify in his own behalf upon one phase of the case, but not upon every phase of it, the prosecuting attorney is not permitted to comment upon the defendant’s failure to testify upon every phase of the case.</p>