State v. Seitz

194 Iowa 1057
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedNovember 24, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 194 Iowa 1057 (State v. Seitz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Seitz, 194 Iowa 1057 (iowa 1919).

Opinion

Arthur, J.

I. The indictment on which appellant was tried charged that Irvin Seitz, appellant, H. H. Ryland, Charles Seward, and Hollis Printy, on April 10, 1917, in the county of Wapello, state of Iowa, “did willfully, unlawfully, and felo-niously, in a certain building in Wapello County, Iowa, in the nighttime of said day, steal, take, and carry away 1,200 pounds [1059]*1059of railroad brass of the value of 40 cents a pound, all being tbe, property of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, and of the aggregate value of $480.” Defendants Ry-land, Seward, and Printy entered pleas of guilty, were sentenced, and were paroled. Defendant Seitz pleaded not guilty, and was tried and convicted, and prosecutes this appeal.

Only one instruction is complained of, but the giving of the instruction was not properly excepted to. No errors are claimed in rulings on testimony. The question presented to us for our determination is the important one of whether there is sufficient corroboration of the testimony of Ryland, Seward, and Printy, alléged accomplices of appellant, Seitz, tending to connect Seitz with the commission of the crime charged, to take the case to the jury and to sustain the verdict. This question was sufficiently presented in the motion for a new trial.

On March 20, 1917, Ryland and Seward and a man by the name of Snyder stole from the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy car shops in Ottumwa a large quantity of brass used for repairs, consisting of 24 boxings for journals, which they secreted in the bank of the river near Ottumwa. Shortly afterwards, Snyder took out his share of the brass; and the balance of the stolen brass was not removed until 'the night of the 10th of April, when it was mingled with the brass alleged to have been stolen on that occasion, which was a larger quantity, and taken by boat to Eldon, where it was secreted.

The indictment on which appellant, Seitz, was tried does not allege the theft committed on March 20th. Evidence of the theft of March 20th was offered by the State, on the theory and claim of the State that, after such theft and before the larceny charged in the indictment, to wit, on or about the 8th or 9th day of April, Ryland and Seward visited Seitz at his place of business in Keokuk, and told Seitz, on that occasion, that they had already stolen some brass from the railroad shop in Ottumwa; and told him that they could get more in the same place; and that Seitz told them he would pay them 10 cents per pound, “if they would get it down there to him.”

The record is without dispute that a larceny was committed, as charged, on the 10th of April, by Ryland, Seward, and Printy. The disputed question is whether or not Seitz so [1060]*1060aided, and abetted in the larceny as to make him also guilty oí the larceny. Seitz was not present at the taking- and carrying away of the brass from the railroad shops. To show actual, physical taking and carrying away of the brass from the railroad shops, it would not be necessary to set out at length the testimony of Ryland, Seward, and Printy. These men admitted the taking and carrying away of the brass from the railroad shops. In fact, there is ample evidence by other witnesses and circumstances to show the theft of the brass from the railroad shops. It may be helpful to set out some of the testimony of Ryland, Seward, and Printy, for the purpose of understanding and testing the corroboration of their testimony claimed by the State. The testimony of these confessed thieves is not in entire harmony. Counsel for appellant argues that they unduly attempted to aid the State; and counsel for the State say that, although these defendants were paroled, they shaded their testimony, to shield appellant. These three defendants were men from 18 to 20 years old, and had been paroled. It was for the jury to weigh the testimony, and determine what it proved, if anything, if the case should have gone to the jury.

Ryland testified that he had sold Seitz railroad brass before; that, in regard to this matter, he first went to Seitz about the 8th or 9th of April, and that Seward was with him; that they talked about the brass, and how much Seitz would pay for it; that he asked Seitz how much he would pay for it, and he told them, 10 cents a pound, “if we would get it down there to him;” that Seitz told witness that there was some railroad brass which Charlie Seward and he could get, in the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy shops at Ottumwa, Iowa; that Seitz told them to come up and get it, and that they came up and got it, and took it down to Eldon in a boat, and put it there in a stump, and went back 'down, and Seitz advanced money to get a cai-to come up and get it; that they came up and got half of it, about, and took it down and broke it up; that then they came back up to get the rest of it, to ship it to Seitz from Eldon, and the officers caught them at Eldon with it; that, at the time they came up in a car, they delivered about a thousand pounds; that 1,240 pounds were shipped by express from Eldon; that they, he and Charlie Seward' and TIollis Printy and Seitz broke up [1061]*1061the brass at the junk shop in Keokuk. Ryland .related breaking into the shops and stealing the brass in March, — the first larceny, — and told of the larceny on the night of the 10th of April. Ryland stated that, after the first interview by him and Charlie Seward with Seitz, “we were back to see him again about the 10th of April; ’ ’ that they told Seitz that there was more brass; that they only brought part of it in the car on the morning of the 11th; that Seitz told them he would pay them 10 cents a pound for the brass; that Snyder was along, when they stole the brass on March 20th; that they told Seitz, before they came up and stole the brass which they stole on April 10th,■ where they were going to get it; that he did not know exáctly when he got the first brass, but that it was April 10th when they got the last. He said:

“'When we got the last batch, we had been up here and stole from that house before. We had not taken it down to Keokuk and sold it. What we did with the first brass was that Snyder took his share out, and we put it in with the last batch all together, what we took down the last time. The first batch we buried down along the river. That was in March. ’ ’

He said that they buried the first brass, and waited until they got the second batch, and took it to Eldon and buried it, and afterwards delivered it to Seitz, about the 11th of April. Ryland testified that Seitz gave them $16, after they had stolen both lots of brass. He said:

“The conversation in which I told Mr. Seitz about the brass was not the conversation at the time I got the money; it was before. I told him about the brass about a week before we came up here, and after the first time that I and Snyder and Seward had been up here, some time in March. A part of this brass we delivered down there was some that we had gotten on this first trip. In connection with telling Seitz where this other brass was, I told him about these new brasses I had gotten — these 24 pieces, — and how I had gotten them.”

Seward testified that he came to Ottumwa the first time in March, with Ryland and Snyder, when they got the brass in the railroad shops. He said:

“The next time I was in Ottumwa was about the 10th of April. "We got some more brass that time. We broke into the [1062]*1062same place, and got the same kind of brass.- Some of it was used and some of it wasn’t. From there we took it in a boat down to Eldon.

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Bluebook (online)
194 Iowa 1057, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-seitz-iowa-1919.