State v. Despain

• Citation: 152 Wash. 488,278 P. 173
• Decision Date: 06 June 1929
• Docket Number: 21916.
• Parties: STATE v. DESPAIN.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

278 P. 173

152 Wash. 488

STATE v. DESPAIN.

No. 21916.

Supreme Court of Washington

June 6, 1929

Department 1.

Appeal from Superior Court, Lewis County; W. A. Reynolds, Judge.

N. L Despain was convicted of arson, and he appeals. Affirmed.

Rice &amp Stinson, of Chehalis, for appellant.

William H. Grimm, of Centralia, and Russell L. Ponder, of Chehalis for the State.

HOLCOMB J.

Appellant was convicted of the crime of arson in the second degree and appeals to this court. The crime as alleged was committed on July 11, 1928, in Lewis county, and consisted of setting fire to his own dwelling house.

On appeal, the only contentions of appellant are that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a conviction and that the court should have granted a new trial by reason thereof.

The argument of appellant to sustain his contentions, upon the facts presented, presents chiefly questions for a jury.

Upon the facts as so argued, it is contended that the facts in this case bring it within the rule of State v. Pienick, 46 Wash. 522, 90 P. 645, 11 L. R. A. (N. S.) 987, 13 Ann. Cas. 800.

The facts in that case showed a chain of circumstances without a motive being present which was as consistent with innocence as with guilt. Appellant had no interest in the business or the property and there was no over insurance. There was absolutely no motive for the crime shown in that case. We therefore held that the corpus delicti was not established beyond a reasonable doubt and the verdict was set aside.

In this case, while the evidence is circumstantial, it is consistent with guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and a motive was shown.

The facts may be briefly summarized, without mentioning all that the jury were entitled to consider, as follows:

The building which appellant is charged with firing is a two-story frame dwelling house belonging to him, constructed of wood and containing six rooms. The rooms were all celled with cedar and only the downstairs rooms were papered. The fire was undoubtedly started on a landing in the stairway, six steps up from the bottom of the stairs. The chimney in the kitchen was examined and found to be in good condition without any defect or any trace of fire around it. Appellant had used the stove in the kitchen an hour or two before the fire occurred, which was about 8:40 in the morning. He went out to the rear of his premises and remained there, first in an outhouse and then in the berry patch and garden, where he was weeding within plain sight of the house at the time the fire occurred. No other person entered the premises during that time; he admitting that if any other person had come upon the premises he would have seen him.

The electric wiring was examined, and it was found that the fuses were in good condition without any indication of any wires having been short-circuited or any fire originating around them. The odor of kerosene was very strong at the time of the fire all over the house. A Tacoma newspaper, dated the day before, saturated with kerosene, was found in the upstairs of the house between the stove pipe coming out through the upstairs floor and the wall. A mattress on appellant's bed upstairs had the cover completely torn off and part of the...