People v. Bonner

JENNINGS, J. The defendants appeal from a judgment rendered in conformity with the verdict of a jury whereby they were found guilty of certain specified criminal offenses and from the trial court’s order denying their motion for a new trial. Reversal of the judgment is here sought on two grounds: First, that the verdict is lacking in evidentiary support, and, second, that the trial court erred in refusing to give a certain instruction requested by defendants and in giving a specified instruction.

In support of their contention of evidentiary insufficiency it is urged that the complaining witness was clearly an accomplice of the defendants in the commission of the offenses and that the testimony of this witness was not sufficiently corroborated.

For the purposes of this opinion it may be assumed that the complaining witness was an accomplice. Examination of the record produces a conviction that such an assumption is not unduly violent. Indulgence in the assumption leaves to be determined the question of whether or not it may fairly be declared that the testimony of the witness was sufficiently corroborated by other evidence produced during the trial.

The evidence upon which respondent relies as affording sufficient corroboration is wholly circumstantial. It may be epitomized briefly as follows: First, the discovery of certain articles of clothing at the place where the complaining witness testified he had dropped them on the evening the offenses were committed and very shortly thereafter; second, the result of a chemical analysis of certain substances found on the abandoned clothing which tended to substantiate the testimony of the complaining witness regarding an incident which took place immediately after the commission of the offenses; third, the physical condition and appearance of the complaining witness approximately nine hours after the com mi sri on of the offenses as narrated by the complaining witness; fourth, the discovery on the day following the com[316]mission of the offenses of certain marks on the ground at the place where the complaining witness testified the offenses were committed; fifth, the circumstance that appellants were permitted unattended to leave the room where they were being questioned regarding the offenses; sixth, the discovery, a few minutes after appellants had returned to the room where they were being examined, that the above-mentioned marks on the ground had been obliterated; seventh, the silence of appellants in the face of accusatory statements made in their presence.