Maderos

The defendants Maderos and Atwine were charged jointly with having burglarized a Pacific Fruit Express car belonging to the Santa Fe Railroad Company. They entered pleas of not guilty and were tried together before a jury, each being found guilty of burglary of the second degree. Judgments of sentence were pronounced accordingly, and each defendant has appealed.

The guilt of the defendants was established by circumstantial evidence and by their oral admissions, contradictory statements and confessions. At the close of the People’s case Maderos moved that the court instruct the jury to acquit upon the ground that the corpus delicti had not been established. The motion was denied. No briefs have been filed in furtherance of their appeals, but counsel for Maderos appeared at the time the causes were called for oral argument and again urged the point, on behalf of both defendants, that the corpus delicti had not been established and that in any event it was not established before the trial court allowed the prosecution to prove defendants’ incriminating statements, and that therefore the trial court erred in so doing. We find no merit in either point.

Prior to introducing the…