State of Minnesota v. Johnathon Brock Mattson-McCarty

Syllabus

Under the corpus delicti statute, Minnesota Statutes section 634.03 (2024), when a district court correctly denies a defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal based on its determination that the trial evidence is sufficient to be presented to the jury because evidence independent of the defendant's confession reasonably tends to prove that the defendant committed the charged offense, the court acts within its discretion by declining to instruct the jury that a confession of the defendant shall not be sufficient to warrant conviction without evidence that the offense charged has been committed. Affirmed.