Gross v. State

Alvey, O. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. 1. The prisoner, the present appellant, was indicted for stealing $205; and, on the trial, the State, after giving ¹⁸¹ evidence tending to prove the guilt of the accused, offered in evidence a letter purporting to have heen written hy him to one John McLaughlin, after the indictment found, urging McLaughlin to become a witness and to swear that the accused had shown him, McLaughlin, a certain amount of money at a certain time before the alleged stealing occurred. The writer of the letter requested that the response should he made through a person called in the letter “ Mattie.” McLaughlin was produced as a witness by the State, and he proved that he had received the letter from the hand of Martha Kaylor, who, as the State proved, was engaged to he married to the accused, or in the terms -of the exception, was the affianced of the accused. Martha Kaylor was then produced as a witness by the State, and she was asked the question, “Who wrote that letter ?” to which she replied: “James Gross; I told you that before.” The witness was then cross-examined hy the counsel for the prisoner ; and upon being asked whether she knew the letter was in Gross’s hand-writing, she answered,— “It looks like Gross’s hand-writing, hut 1 would not swear to his hand-writing, unless I saw him write.” The cross-examination was not pressed further, as to whether she had ever seen the prisoner write, or whether she had other means of knowledge of his hand-writing, or as to any special knowledge she might have had in regard to the origin of the letter, or why she acted upon it, and delivered it to McLaughlin; hut upon the answer of the witness just quoted, the prisoner objected that the letter was not admissible.

The Court over-ruled the objection, and allowed the letter to he read to the jury; and in so doing we think there was no error. It is manifest the witness testified under feelings adverse to the prosecution. She had stated without qualification, on the examination-in-chief, that the letter was the letter of James Gross, the prisoner ; and she further stated, on cross-examination, that the letter looked like the