Matthews v. People, 3 Pac. (2d) 409 (Colorado 1931)

Defendant was convicted of the murder of his wife and sentenced to the penitentiary for life. Aside from mere routine proof, the State's case rested solely upon the testimony of a ballistics expert, who had examined the bullets taken from the body of the deceased, compared them with bullets which he fired from defendant's revolver, and gave it as his opinion that the murder was committed with that weapon. On review, the court reversed and remanded with directions to sustain motion for directed verdict. The sole evidence of guilt was the assertion that certain alleged markings appeared upon the bullets. The court examined them and found nothing of the kind. The thread was entirely too slender to support a sentence of life imprisonment. The evidence was not only weak and uncertain, but was no evidence. Under such circumstances, defendant's motion for a directed verdict should have been sustained