Opinion ID: 1745991
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: corroboration of admission

Text: Relying on the proposition that a confession, standing alone, is insufficient to prove that a crime has been committed, see State v. True, 210 Neb. 701, 316 N.W.2d 623 (1982), Zaritz next alleges that the court erred in finding that Zaritz' admissions at the truckstop were corroborated by independent evidence. Where the crime involves physical damage to a person or property, the prosecution must generally show that the injury for which the accused confessed responsibility did in fact occur and that some person was criminally culpable. State v. Hankins, 232 Neb. 608, 441 N.W.2d 854 (1989) (murder); True, supra (aiding and abetting a burglary); State v. Scott, 200 Neb. 265, 263 N.W.2d 659 (1978) (murder in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, a robbery and shooting with intent to kill, wound, or maim). There need be no link, outside the confession, between the injury and the confessor. Hankins, supra . Even assuming arguendo that Zaritz' admissions at the truckstop constituted a confession, this assignment of error is meritless. The record indisputably reflects that a truck was stolen from a dealership near York and that some person was criminally culpable. Zaritz' admissions at the truckstop linked him to the crimes. As the preceding discussion demonstrates, even without the defendant's admissions, there was more than adequate extrinsic evidence from which a trial court could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of theft and conspiracy. This assignment of error is without merit.