47 Iowa 384 | Iowa | 1877
“ I found the musket and cigars in Graff’s stable. They
In our opinion the testimony of Deckart did not corroborate the testimony of the accomplice. It did not, we think, tend to prove the crime with which the defendant was charged. The stolen goods were not found in his possession nor upon his premises. His presence in the barn doing nothing when the goods were discovered is not a circumstance against him. The defendant is a boy. Whether employed or unemployed he was where he might as naturally be expected to be as anywhere else. Nor do we see «anything in the fact that he was there when the marshal was searching for the property. In our opinion his presence is quite as consistent with his innocence as his absence would be. The testimony of the witness being uncorroborated, it follows that thfe verdict was contrary to the evidence, and the judgment must be Reversed.