State v. Weyant

• Decision Date: 13 December 1910
• Citation: 128 N.W. 839,149 Iowa 457
• Parties: STATE v. WEYANT.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

149 Iowa 457

128 N.W. 839

STATE

v.WEYANT.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Dec. 13, 1910.

Appeal from District Court, Clayton County; L. E. Fellows, Judge.

The defendant was tried to a jury upon the charge of deserting his wife and infant child. The court directed a verdict of not guilty, and ordered defendant's discharge. The State appeals. Reversed.H. W. Byers, Atty. Gen., and C. W. Lyon, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

WEAVER, J.

The evidence on the part of the state is undisputed, and tends to show that defendant was married September 9, 1906, and that a child of this union was born to him May 20, 1908. For a time prior to the alleged desertion, the family lived as tenants in a house belonging to defendant's father, some of whose land defendant cultivated. On March 15, 1909, under the pretense of leaving home for a very short time on a business errand, defendant abandoned his wife and child, and since that date has not lived with them or in any manner contributed to their support and maintenance. On the day of defendant's departure, his father laid claim to and took away the bulk of the property of any material value which had been left by his son. The defendant owned no real estate, and the property left with the wife, and not claimed by his father, was a cow which she had brought to him, a few chickens, provisions sufficient to sustain her for a few days only, and a quantity of potatoes, for which her father-in-law gave her $10. Except these items and some articles of household furniture, she had no property or estate whatever with which to feed, clothe and shelter herself and child, and was under the necessity of returning to her father's home, where she has since remained, except for occasional periods when she has worked as a house servant in other homes. Her service is not needed in her father's home, but she remains there because of her lack of means with which to maintain one for herself. No reason or cause is shown or suggested for defendant's abandonment of his family or his refusal to provide for their needs. At the close of the state's case, defendant without offering any testimony in his own behalf moved for a directed verdict of acquittal because the evidence offered was insufficient to support a conviction, in that the state had failed to show that the wife and child were in a destitute condition at the date when they were abandoned.

In sustaining this motion we think the trial court erred. The statute with a violation of which the defendant was charged provides for the punishment of a person who without good cause abandons his wife or child under 16 years of age, leaving either in a destitute condition. Code Supp. 1907, § 4775a.

Taking the record as it stands, the defendant is clearly shown to have been guilty of inexcusable and heartless desertion of his wife and infant child. He left her not a dollar in money, and, excepting a small quantity of potatoes, not a...