70 Iowa 180 | Iowa | 1886
The cause was submitted to this court upon what appears to be a full report of 'the evidence. There was no argument submitted upon the part of the state. The defendant was in the employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company for some ten or twelve years in the capacity of a station agent. For some fifteen months prior to January, 1884, he was agent at Mount Pleasant, in this state. He was intrusted with all the business of the company at that station pertaining to the freight and ticket department; the station being one at which considerable business was transacted. There were some four or five persons
The material question in the case is, was the jury warranted from the evidence in finding the defendant guilty? In other words, was the evidence sufficient to support a finding that the defendant received the money in his possession, and, with the felonious intent of stealing it, converted it to his own use. The crime of embezzlement embraces all of the
The evidence shows that there was a safe and a money drawer in the office, and the freight books were kept in the
The only evidence against the defendant is that, when he discovered that the money was short, he held way-bills for freight, or, as the traveling auditor expresses it, he suppressed waj^-bills, and held them back without reporting them, and reported the oldest bills, or those first received. It is true, this is competent evidence that he attempted to conceal the shortage, and the jury might infer therefrom that he intended to defraud the company. But, in view of the fact that there were a number of other persons who had the sam9 opportunity to commit the crime that the defendant had, and in view of the further fact that it appears from the evidence, without conflict or contradiction, that the defendant had been for years a trusted employe of the company, and was a man of unblemished character for honesty, — a reputable citizen with a wife and three small children, — the jury should have accepted the explanation he gave of his conduct, which was that he did not convert to his own use one cent of the money of the company, and that he held back the bills for the purpose of discovering the thief. It may have been that it would have been wiser to have reported the losses at once as they occurred. But, in view of all the evidence, we do not think there was any warrant in finding that the defendant was the guilty party. In our opinion, the evidence tends strongly to show that the $100 which was the basis of the verdict was abstracted from the package after it was made up for transmission, either by persons who had access to it at Mount Pleasant, or at Chicago, where it was sent. The defendant was a witness in his own behalf, and he testified
REVERSED.