State v. Lyons
| Decision Date | 11 January 1927 |
| Docket Number | 37833 |
| Citation | 211 N.W. 702,202 Iowa 1195 |
| Parties | STATE OF IOWA, Appellee, v. DORRANCE E. LYONS, Appellant |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal fro Dubuque District Court.--P. J. NELSON, Judge.
The defendant was jointly with three others indicted for murder. Upon a separate trial, he was convicted of murder in the first degree, and his punishment was fixed at life imprisonment. He appeals.
Affirmed.
John D Knoll, for appellant.
Ben J Gibson, Attorney-general, and Neill Garrett, Assistant Attorney-general, for appellee.
It is undisputed that appellant's codefendants, Carlson, Kardell, and Truda, and one Earl Stearns were confined in the Dubuque County jail; and on the morning of October 12, 1925, when the deceased, who was the jailer, went into the jail, he was shot and killed by Stearns, who, with Carlson and Kardell, then escaped from the jail. The appellant had been in the jail on a minor charge, and was discharged on October 8, 1925. After the killing of the jailer, he was arrested, and signed a written confession, which was introduced in evidence, in which he said, in substance, that, before he was released from the jail, it was arranged between himself, his codefendants, and Stearns that he should procure a gun and get it into the jail, and he was given $ 4.50 for that purpose; that, after his release, he stole a 25-caliber Colt automatic pistol, loaded it, and went to the jail in the evening, where he talked with Truda and told him that he had the gun; that he then went around into the gangway between the courthouse and the jail, and a string was hanging over the jail wall, made up of the strands taken from the jail mop, and he tied the pistol to the string. The confession contained the following:
In addition to the written confession, there was testimony that appellant stated, after his arrest, that, when he visited Truda at the jail, Truda instructed him to go around the side, and he would find a string hanging over the wall; that he was familiar with the plot, and that Stearns was to "stick up" the deceased, bring him into the jail, take his gun away from him, and lock him in a cell.
The cause was tried by the State and submitted to the jury on the theory that the appellant had conspired with his codefendants and Stearns to effect a jail delivery of the others by an attack upon the jailer, with a weapon to be procured by appellant and introduced into the jail in the manner stated; and that appellant was responsible for the acts of his coconspirators in pursuance of the common design, although the injury done was greater than that intended by the conspirators, and although appellant was not present at the time of the assault on the jailer. That this is the law is not disputed by the appellant. See State v. McCahill, 72 Iowa 111, 30 N.W. 553; State v. Munchrath, 78 Iowa 268, 43 N.W. 211; State v. Smith, 106 Iowa 701, 77 N.W. 499; State v. Pasnau, 118 Iowa 501, 92 N.W. 682. He does not question the court's instructions to the jury.
I. The chief complaint is that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the verdict, and this is directed to the proposition of the identity of the pistol which the appellant tied to the string hanging over the jail wall with that used by Stearns in the attack on the jailer. There was testimony that the bullet found in the wound which produced the death of the jailer was of the same caliber as the pistol which appellant tied to the string; and an inmate of the jail, who was not concerned in the conspiracy, but saw the shooting, testified that he saw the gun in Stearn's hand, and that a Colt 25-caliber automatic pistol shown him looked like the gun which Stearns had. We are clearly of the opinion that the evidence...
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