State v. Thompson

This is a prosecution for breach of the peace, brought in Caledonia municipal court under V. S. 47, § 8458. Trial by jury, verdict of guilty. The case is here on the respondent’s exception to the denial of his motion for a directed verdict of not guilty at the close of the evidence.

The respondent is a hardware merchant in Hardwick and on July 1, 1950, sold fifteen dynamite caps to Anthony Washburn, a boy fifteen years old, who put them in a paper bag furnished by the respondent. AVashburn later placed the fifteen caps in a tin box with other dynamite caps and hid the box behind a shed. About…