196 Mo. 43 | Mo. | 1906
On the 27th day of October, 1905, the grand jury of Cooper county preferred an indictment. against the defendant, Morney, charging him in the first count thereof with arson in the third degree, in having, at said county, on the second day of September, 1905, set fire to and burned a store building situated in said county and belonging to one George Vaughn; the second count of the indictment being the same as the first, save that it avers the ownership of said building to be in one Henry A. Cox.
Thereafter, during the October term, 1905, of said
The facts are substantially as follows: On the second day of September, 1905, George Yaughn was the owner of a store building in the village of New Lebanon, in Cooper, county, which was used by him and Leslie Thomas as a grocery store. The defendant, a negro, resided with his wife and children on a small farm about four and one-half miles southeast of said village. About one o’clock of the night of the 2nd day of September aforesaid said store building was discovered to be on fire, and investigation showed that said fire originated in a coal oil tank situated on a porch at the rear end of said building. The faucet was open, and the oil apparently running and on fire at the faucet, although it had been left closed when the proprietors left the store the evening before. The building was consumed by the fire. It was suspected that the fire was the work of an incendiary, and when daylight came two searching parties were formed, one going north and the other south, upon the only roads passing through the village. The roads were quite dusty. A light rain had fallen during the night, however, which partially settled the dust. No tracks were found until a gate was reached, about one-half or three-quarters of a mile east of the store. The gate opened into Rube Thomas’s pasture, which extended up near said store. The tracks found were those of a barefooted horse, and led from the direction of the store towards the defendant’s house, but they could not be tracked back into the pasture, and towards the store, more than about seventy-five yards from the gate. With only a few intermissions at rocky places in the county road, these tracks were followed on to
On behalf of the defendant, the evidence tended to show that he enjoyed a good reputation prior to the commission of the crime charged. Defendant’s wife testified that he went to New Lebanon the evening before to have his plow sharpened, and returned home about nine o’clock p. m. That she and her children had gone to bed hut not to sleep. That, after milking his cow, defendant went to bed, and she supposed remained in bed with her all night. That the next morning at four o’clock, defendant called her to get up and cook breakfast. She denied telling Alfred Gaston or any one else that the defendant slept on the floor in the kitchen
In rebuttal, the State introduced Alfred Gaston, who testified that shortly after the arrest, defendant’s wife stated to him that defendant, on the night of the fire, pulled off his shoes and laid down on the floor; that she did not know what time he came to bed, but he was in bed the next morning.
At the close of the State’s evidence, and again at the close of all the evidence, the defendant demurred thereto upon the ground that it was insufficient to sustain a conviction, but the demurrer was denied, and defendant excepted. The same point is insisted on before us, and is in our opinion the vital question involved in this appeal.
When a conviction for felony rests altogether upon circumstantial evidence, as in this case, “the circumstances proved must be consistent with each other, consistent with the hypothesis that the accused is guilty, and at the same time inconsistent with the hypothesis that he is innocent, and with every other rational hypothesis except that of guilt.” [12 Cyc., 488, and authorities cited.] Taking these well-established rules for our guidance, do the facts disclosed by the evidence support and consist with the hypothesis that the defendant set fire to and burned the store building as charged in the indictment! There was no fact or circumstance in evidence tending to show, or from which it could be reasonably inferred, that defendant was any nearer to the building at the time it was burned than one-half or three-quarters of a mile. In order to establish defend
In State v. Scott, 177 Mo. 665, a conviction was sought- on circumstantial evidence, and Fox, J., in speaking for the court, said: “We have carefully analyzed all the testimony as presented by the State,
In this case there was also an absence of any proof of an inducing motive for the burning of the building by defendant. There is no pretense that the defendant derived or expected to derive benefit of any kind from the burning of the building, or that he entertained malice or ill-will towards its owner; and, while this does not disprove defendant’s guilt, the absence of any motive for the crime should under the circumstances disclosed by this record be taken into consideration in passing upon the question of his guilt.
Our conclusion is that there was no substantial evidence of defendant’s guilt, and the demurrer thereto should have been sustained. The judgment should be reversed and the defendant discharged. It is so ordered.