167 Mass. 283 | Mass. | 1897
The defendant was convicted only on the eighth, sixteenth, and twenty-fourth counts of the indictment, and if there were any errors in the admission of evidence affecting only counts upon which he was acquitted, they did him no harm, and cannot now be availed of as grounds for a new trial. Commonwealth v. Meserve, 154 Mass. 64.
The request to rule that the finding of large quantities of goods in Learned’s possession could not be considered against the defendant “ unless it is affirmatively shown that he par
The defendant asked a ruling as to each count of the indictment, that there was not sufficient evidence to warrant a verdict of guilty. In regard to two of the counts on which the conviction was had, we think the ruling should have been given. It was necessary to prove the ownership of the property received as charged in the indictment. There was sufficient evidence in the testimony of one Milliken to justify, if not to require, such a finding in regard to the biggins and the teapots described in the eighth count ofithe indictment, but in regard to the others it is expressly stated in the bill of exceptions that there was no evidence of the breaking or the entering of the shop of any of the persons named as owners in the different counts of the indictment at any time, or of the loss by them of the property described in the indictment, or of any similar property, nor was there any identification of any of the articles in question by any one, except to the extent that they were similar in each case to the property kept for sale by the person alleged to be the owner. This last fact, without corroborating circumstances beyond those which appear in the case, was not enough to warrant a jury in finding the allegation of property in the indictment to be proved, and it is therefore necessary to sustain the exceptions, and set aside the verdict on the sixteenth and twenty-fourth counts.
Exceptions sustained as to the sixteenth and twenty-fourth counts, and overruled as to the eighth count.