People v. Alvarez
People v. Alvarez
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Section 236 of the Code of Criminal Procedure says that—
“A defendant in a criminal action is pre'sumed to be innocent until the contrary is proved, and in case of a reasonable doubt whether his guilt is satisfactorily shown, he is entitled to an acquittal. ’ ’
Appellant, the owner of a dairy, sold his milk to a retailer and delivered same in a can provided with a padlock having duplicate keys, one of which was kept by appellant and the other by the purchaser.
Upon the occasion involved herein the can was opened
The owner of the stall and purchaser of the milk, who had opened and emptied the can, testified that he had purchased the milk from appellant; but it is a significant circumstance that notwithstanding the contradictory statements of the preceding witness, the prosecuting attorney made no inquiry whatever as to whether or not the sample was taken before or after the emptying of the original container.
If the milk was transferred to another container, in a stall where other milk was kept for sale, before the sample was taken and without previous inspection of such container, or in the absence of testimony tending to show that the new receptacle was empty at the time, no court could say that defendant had been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Nor can any judgment of conviction based upon testimony so utterly evasive, uncertain and self-contradictory
The judgment appealed from must be
Reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.