## Facts

- Blackburn hired a horse and buggy, stating he intended to drive to Laurel’s Creek, and traveled with a woman companion who drove because Blackburn had one arm.
- Instead of stopping at the stated destination, they went to Bear Creek in an adjoining county.
- Blackburn left the horse and buggy with Cornutte, who agreed to keep them until Blackburn’s return a day or two later.
- Blackburn borrowed $2 from Cornutte, representing that the horse and buggy belonged to him.
- Blackburn and the woman crossed into West Virginia, where Blackburn was later arrested on the horse-theft charge.
- Blackburn claimed he had been drinking heavily, slept while the woman drove beyond the intended destination, and did not remember what he told Cornutte.
- Blackburn denied any intent to steal and asserted he intended to redeem and return the horse; when arrested, he had enough money to repay Cornutte and cover care of the horse.

## Issues

1. Whether larceny requires proof of an actual conversion or completed appropriation after the taking, or whether a taking with intent to convert to one’s own use completes the offense.

## Decision

- The Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction.
- The court held that larceny is complete upon a wrongful taking accompanied by felonious intent to appropriate or convert, without requiring proof of a later, distinct act of conversion.
- The trial court’s instruction permitting conviction upon finding a taking “intending to convert it to his own use” was not erroneous for omitting a requirement of actual completed conversion.

## Legal Principles

- Larceny is completed when a person takes and carries away another’s personal property without consent and with intent to permanently deprive the owner or appropriate it to the taker’s own use.
- The prosecution need not prove a separate, subsequent act of conversion beyond the taking when felonious intent exists at the time of the taking.
- Jury instructions may properly frame the required mental state as an intent to convert or appropriate at the time of the taking, without adding an extra element of completed conversion.

## Conclusion

The court upheld Blackburn’s horse-larceny conviction, ruling that the crime turns on the defendant’s intent at the time of the taking and is not dependent on proving a later, completed act of conversion.


Blackburn v. Commonwealth, 89 S.W. 160 (Ky. 1905)