Grant v. State

Per Curiam. Claiming that a witness for the State was an accomplice and that her testimony had not been sufficiently corroborated to warrant a conviction for unauthorized use of an automobile, the defendant (William Grant) appealed. An automobile that had been stolen was wrecked three days later. The ensuing investigation of the accident disclosed that the defendant and a friend were pinned inside the demolished vehicle.

Three other occupants had fled before the police arrived. Shortly before the accident, while a taxicab (in which Grady Camp, Norman Ray and Estelle Johnson were riding on the way to Fairfield) was waiting at a stop signal, the defendant came along side the cab in the stolen automobile, and, recognizing Ray, offered to take him and his friends to their destination. The offer was accepted, the cab was dismissed, and the occupants of the cab entered the stolen vehicle with the defendant and his friend (William Adair) and drove away with Ray behind the wheel. William Grant and three other defendants (Camp, Ray and Adair) were tried under an indictment charging them with ³⁸⁶ larceny of the automobile and other related offenses.

At the first trial, the other defendants were found not guilty by the court (Carter, J.) and, although the defendant was found guilty of unauthorized use under the third count of the indictment, the court subsequently set aside the verdict, appointed counsel for the defendant and set the case down for retrial. The other occupant of the automobile (Estelle Johnson) was not indicted. At the second trial before the court (Jones, J.) sitting without a jury, Estelle Johnson testified on