People v. Roganovich

YORK, J.

Defendants were charged with the crime of first degree arson and were convicted as charged. They moved the court for an arrest of judgment and moved for a new trial, which motions were by the trial court denied and judgment was thereupon entered. They appeal to this court from the order of the trial court denying their motion for a new trial, and from the judgment of the court entered on the verdict of the jury.

The first objection urged by defendants is the denial of their motions for a directed verdict, but they make only general reference to the transcript for a statement of what the evidence was without making any precise statement of what they claim the facts to be. A review of the reporter’s transcript shows evidence that the defendants purchased the business, stock, and equipment of a .restaurant, where the fire was alleged to have occurred, for $200. They were renting a portion of the building of one Max Stiller, who testified that about midnight on May 3d, or fifteen days before the fire, he was awakened by the defendant Roganovich, who stated that the telephone pole near the building was on fire. Before he could proceed to the building said defendant “came running back and said the fire was all out.’’ Later, after the fire in the building, he examined the telephone poles near the building and could not find any sign of any fire. The fire broke out in the restaurant; fires were burning through the floor and an odor of gas was noticed by firemen extinguishing the fire. Shortly before the fire defendants were seen in and near the building. It was unusual for them to be in the building at such an early hour of the morning. A sack which had coal-oil on it and which was partly burned was found in the restaurant after

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the fire. There is direct evidence that no coal-oil was in the restaurant before the night of the fire, and the evidence strongly tended to show that the fire was purposely set. The evidence showed although the defendants had purchased the restaurant for $200, they had their bill of sale recite a much larger sum and reported that they had paid $750 for this stock and equipment, and attempted to obtain insurance at a $2,000 valuation and actually did obtain insurance for $1,000 on the equipment and $500 on the stock prior to the fire. These facts, none of which was disputed, were of themselves sufficient to justify the verdict of the jury. It is not for this court to substitute its opinion of the facts for that of the jury and the trial judge. We are limited to passing upon the question as to whether the circumstances justify the judge in denying the motion of the defendants for an instructed verdict. A careful examination of the transcript herein convinces us that the evidence adduced in this case was sufficient to produce a conviction in an unprejudiced mind that the fire in question was incendiary and not of accidental origin. There was no explanation as to why the defendants were in the restaurant at an unusual hour in the morning just before the fire broke out. Besides, their conduct at that time, taken in connection with the fire that followed, was unusual and of such a nature as to excite suspicion and tend to produce a conviction of the defendants’ guilt.