Wood

Defendant Wood and a codefendant, Whitman, were convicted of burglary in the second degree. Prom the judgment imposing sentence Wood alone appeals.

The burglarized premises, a market, were entered on August 8, 1965, through a hole cut in the roof. The roof was covered with paper impregnated with tar, encrusted with fine gravel, which in the area around the hole had received color from paint spray that had drifted from adjoining premises.

Except for a statement made by defendant Wood (discussed hereafter), from which an admission of guilt might be inferred, the evidence against him was wholly circumstantial, but would have been sufficient without the admission of complicity to support a finding of guilt. Under well recognized rules, the erroneous admission into evidence of an admission of guilt would require reversal, regardless of the sufficiency of the other evidence to support the jury’s finding.

A significant part of the circumstantial evidence consisted of the analysis and comparison of tar and paint stains found on Wood's clothing worn by him on August 8 and on particles of gravel found in his clothing with the tar and gravel of the roofing material as affected by the…