284 Mass. 443 | Mass. | 1933
The defendant was tried and was convicted by a jury on an indictment which charged that he burned a dwelling house which was insured, with the intent to defraud an insurance company. G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 266, § 10. The only exception of the defendant is to the failure of the trial judge to allow his motion for a directed verdict of not guilty.
The defendant and his wife lived in Providence, Rhode Island. She owned a house on Emmett Street in Fall River which in April, 1932, was vacant. It was insured for $1,500 under a five year policy issued in October, 1927. In September, 1931, when the defendant transferred to his wife his interest in the property and assigned to her his interest in the policy, the amount of insurance was increased to $3,000. On Friday, April 29, 1932, at about one o’clock in the afternoon a passerby saw indications that there had been a fire in this house, found the door open and entered. There was no fire burning in the house at that time but woodwork in different parts of the house had been burned, and there were three bushel baskets in different places containing what appeared to be paper that had been consumed by fire, gallon cans which contained gasoline and kerosene, marks on the floor leading to the baskets which might have been found to have been made by fuses and other evidence which warranted the finding that the fire was of incendiary origin.
There was evidence that the defendant and another man were seen in a yard adjoining the premises at about three o’clock on Friday afternoon after the discovery of the fire. On the following day when the defendant was questioned by a police inspector he said that when he went home Friday night he learned from his wife that she had, that afternoon, received a letter notifying her that there had been a fire in the Fall River house. He stated that he had not been at that house for a month. A witness was then brought into his presence who said that he had seen the defendant and
There was here no direct evidence that the fire was set by the defendant but we are of the opinion that there was evidence which if believed warranted the jury in finding facts from which it might properly draw inferences, not too remote in the ordinary course of events, or forbidden, by any rule of law, and conclude upon all the established circumstances and warranted inferences that the guilt of the defendant was proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Commonwealth v. Alba, 271 Mass. 333, 337. Commonwealth v. Cooper, 264 Mass. 368, 373. Commonwealth v. Asherowski, 196 Mass. 342. The fact that the defendant, with knowledge that there had been an incendiary fire in the house, went home to Providence without notifying the public authorities (Commonwealth v. Cali, 247 Mass. 20, 25), the evidence of his admission that in so going he was actuated by fear, his contradictory statements during the investigation (Commonwealth v. Lavery, 255 Mass. 327, 332),
Exceptions overruled.