Reeves

The People appeal an order of the superior court setting aside an information which charged Oswald Samuel Reeves with possession of a sawed-off shotgun on or about 28 July 1973. (Pen. Code, § 12020.) 1 *946 The question is whether the evidence, independently of Reeves’ extrajudicial confession, sufficiently establishes the corpus delicti of possession of a sawed-off shotgun.

The evidence shows that at 4 a.m. on 28 July 1973 codefendant Conrad Robinson fired a shotgun at a passing automobile at the intersection of Spaulding and Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles. As police officers pursued, Robinson ran into an alley and then came out of the alley with his hands up. In the alley a few yards away the officers found a shotgun with a 14%-inch barrel. On 30 July 1973 defendant Reeves went to the Wilshire police station and volunteered to a police officer that on the night of the shooting he had been at a party with Robinson and, after an argument at the party, he and Robinson went to get a gun. The officer asked, “Whose gun is it?” and Reeves replied, “It’s my gun. We went to my house.”

A defendant cannot be held to answer unless the evidence establishes, independently of his…