204 N.W. 272 | Iowa | 1925
The evidence of the State tends to show that, on April 16, 1923, one H.J. Carlson, in the city of Burlington, Iowa, drove his Ford coupé to the Mercy hospital, where he parked the same, and that, after a visit to the hospital, he returned for his car, and it was gone. It was found about the first of May, in Galesburg, Illinois, in the possession of police officers. The number had been changed, and it had no license plates. It had been found by the officers in the possession of the defendant, who gave various inconsistent explanations of how he came into possession of it.
In the trial of the case, the State was permitted, over the objections of the defendant, to introduce the testimony of the sheriff of Des Moines County as to a conversation had in the spring of 1923 about certain license plates. The sheriff was permitted to testify that the defendant told him that he transferred a car to Gus Feldman, who purchased a new set of plates, and that the car had never been fetched to Iowa; and that the sheriff found certain license plates at Feldman's. He identified certain registration cards from the treasurer's office in Burlington, which defendant told him had been turned into the treasurer's office for new license plates, and testified that these were the license plates found in Gus Feldman's residence. Such registration card and license plates were then, against the objection of the defendant, admitted in evidence. The sheriff says he never saw the car called for by the exhibits, but that the defendant told him that the car had been stolen in Chicago. The admission of this testimony is urged upon us as a serious error. When it is remembered that this defendant is before the court charged with the larceny of this Ford automobile, it takes an unreasonable stretch of the imagination to see why this testimony was admitted. There is no claim that the license plates found at *319 Gus Feldman's were ever on the car in controversy or had anything to do with the car. The Illinois certificate that was turned into the office of the treasurer of Des Moines County shows an entirely different engine number from the one in controversy herein.
Our attention is called to the case of State v. Albery,
In State v. Vance,
In the case before us, the evidence admitted does not come within any of these exceptions. It is not even a charge of a *320 similar crime. The court erred in admitting this line of testimony. That it is prejudicial, no one who is familiar with the trial of lawsuits can doubt.
Several other errors are urged, and complaint is made about the argument of the prosecuting attorney. These matters will probably be taken care of on a retrial of the case, and we give them no further attention.
For the error above pointed out, the case is reversed. —Reversed.
FAVILLE, C.J., and EVANS and ARTHUR, JJ., concur.