Court Opinion

ID: 9728118
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 13:59:03.383451+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:45.986984
License: Public Domain

KINGSLEY, J.
Concurring and Dissenting. I concur insofar as the decision affirms the conviction on count X (the receiving count), since, as to that count, Stober was not an accomplice and his testimony, coupled with defendant’s possession of the proceeds, supports that verdict.
I dissent insofar as the decision affirms the four burglary counts. Nothing corroborates Stober’s testimony involving defendant in those burglaries except defendant’s false explanation. That explanation does not necessarily connect defendant with any burglary; it is equally consistent with guilt of receiving. Since corroborating evidence must connect a defendant with the very crime charged and not merely with criminality of some sort, defendant is entitled to more than a proof of possibility of guilt. Unlike the cases relied on by the majority, where if defendant was guilty at all he must have been the burglar, or where none of the special problems of accomplice testimony were involved, a case resting on nothing but accomplice testimony must involve corroboration greater than an even-money choice by the trier of fact.
Appellant’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied May 29, 1974.