State v. Gadbois

• Citation: 89 Iowa 25,56 N.W. 272
• Parties: STATE v. GADBOIS ET AL.
• Decision Date: 05 October 1893
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa

89 Iowa 25

56 N.W. 272

STATE

v.GADBOIS ET AL.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Oct. 5, 1893.

Appeal from district court, Benton county; J. R. Caldwell, Judge.

The defendants were accused of the crime of burglary in the nighttime, tried by jury, found guilty, and adjudged to be imprisoned in the state penitentiary at Anamosa at hard labor for the term of six years. From that judgment they appeal.Burnham & Gaasch and D. E. Voris, for appellants.

John Y. Stone, Atty. Gen., and Thos. A. Cheshire, for the State.

ROBINSON, C. J.

During the night of the 29th day of November, 1892, the store of W. H. Burrows & Co., in Belle Plaine, was broken into, and merchandise amounting in value to nearly $300 was stolen from it. On the 3d day of the next month the merchandise so taken was found packed in satchels and a box under the hay in certain hay barracks in the town of Watkins, about 15 miles east of Belle Plaine. During the night of that day defendant William B. Gadbois was seen to enter the barracks, and was arrested soon after he left them, and his codefendant, L. F. Widner, was arrested during the same night, within a short distance of the town.

1. The appellants contend that the evidence was not sufficient to authorize the conviction of either of them. They were not seen to commit the offense of which they are charged, none of the stolen property was found in their possession or under their control, and they have not admitted their guilt. To sustain their conviction the state relies wholly upon circumstantial evidence, which shows substantially the following: At the time of the burglary Gadbois resided in Cedar Rapids, 35 miles east of Belle Plaine; and Widner at Marion, a few miles further away. Cedar Rapids, Belle Plaine, and Watkins are on the main line of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, and trains passed each way through them during the nighttime. A witness testified that he saw the defendants in Belle Plaine at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the day which preceded the burglary, near the store which was broken into; and another, who was a car repairer, states that he saw them in the railway yards about 9 o'clock in the evening, that he talked with them, and that they asked about the trains going out. He also states that he saw them in a store in the town an hour or two earlier. A witness testified that at about 7:30 o'clock in the morning of November 30, 1892, he saw, through a church window, in Watkins, two men moving about. He started for the church, but before he arrived two men left it and went away. They resembled the defendants, and he thinks, although he is not positive, that they were the defendants. Several witnesses testify that between 8 and 9 o'clock that morning the defendants took breakfast at the house of Joseph Brecht, 2 1/2 miles southeast of Watkins. They wore their hats pulled down over their foreheads while eating, and remained but a few minutes. An hour or two later they were seen about five miles southeast of Watkins. In the evening of December 3d, soon after the 10 o'clock train came in from the east, Gadbois was seen by persons watching to come around a corner about 25 yards north of the hay barracks. He walked towards the barracks, looked around, and then walked towards a church, which was about 50 yards in a northeasterly direction from the barracks. He walked about 30 yards, and looked west towards the schoolhouse; then walked back of the barracks, whistled twice; then walked towards the church again, looked around, and came back, went into the barracks, remained but a short time; then came out and walked rapidly northward to the corner; then turned west towards the schoolhouse, which was about 2 1/2 blocks west, and a little north of the barracks. When he turned west, the watchers, among whom was the sheriff, followed him. The sheriff called to him to “halt,” when he started to run. The sheriff fired a shot at him, and, after running about a block, he stopped, and was arrested. He was taken to a house, and asked where his partner was, and said he had no partner. He was then asked what the whistling was for, and answered, “I have nothing to say.” He afterwards said, speaking of himself, that his name was Harry Dustan, and that he lived in Chicago. At a little after 10 o'clock a man wearing a stiff hat and a light overcoat was seen driving a black horse westward about half a mile north of the town. Soon after that time a man wearing a light overcoat was seen to walk eastward towards the church along a street which led from the direction of the schoolhouse, and in a very short time he was seen to go westward towards the schoolhouse. Being informed that a man had been seen going towards the barracks, the sheriff and a companion followed him, going north from the schoolhouse. After driving about a half mile they overtook defendant Widner, who was driving a black horse attached to a road wagon, and was wearing a stiff hat and light overcoat like that worn by the man who had been seen going westward north of Watkins, and eastward from the schoolhouse and then westward in Watkins. He was ordered several times to stop, but refused to do so until a gun was aimed at him. He stated that he had been visiting relatives at Millersburg, and was going to Marion. Millersburg is about 30 miles south of Watkins, and Marion is about the same distance in a northeasterly direction. The next morning he said he came from the south; that he had tied his horse by a schoolhouse or church, and had gone up town for feed for him, but having no money, and not wishing to beg, he went back. He and Gadbois, when arrested, said they had never seen each other before. The evidence showed that they had been seen together repeatedly before the robbery. Widner hired the horse and wagon he was driving when arrested, in Marion, at about 1 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon of December 3d, telling the owner at the time that he wished to go to Linn Grove, a place about five miles away. Much testimony was given in behalf of the defendants, which tended strongly to show that Gadbois was in Cedar Rapids and Widner in Marion when the robbery was committed; and the testimony of the witnesses who claim to have seen defendants in Belle Plaine the day before and evening of the robbery is contradicted. But several witnesses who testified...