State v. Zuercher

state appeals from an order in arrest of judgment on a verdict of guilty in a second-degree arson case. The principal issue presented is: Do motive, threats, and opportunity to burn, in connection with the fact of the fire, prima facie establish the corpus delicti of arson, so as to permit the admission into evidence of the defendant’s confession of the crime? We answer in the affirmative, and reverse.

In chronological order, the facts are as follows. On January 2, 1973, the defendant and his wife were divorced. The decree awarded a mobile home, in which the parties and their child had been…