People v. Hill

FOX,

J.

Defendant was convicted of violating sections 288 and 288a, Penal Code. He appeals from the ensuing judgment on the ground of the insufficiency of the evidence.

The victim, a newsboy 11 years of age, was folding his newspapers, at about 6 o'clock Sunday morning, July 13, 1952, in the vicinity of the 1000 block on North San Fernando Road, Burbank, in preparation for delivering them, when defendant drove up. He told the boy he should not be out there, that he should go home, and offered to drive him there. The boy declined his invitation and defendant drove off. He came by a second time and bought a paper. He came by again while the boy was delivering his papers and asked the boy ‘ ‘ to come with him. ’ ’ He refused. Defendant then exhibited a revolver and the boy “went with him in the car.” After driving some 45 minutes defendant parked “in a little clearing.” He had the boy at least partially undress. The boy testified to the commission by defendant of the acts denounced by sections 288 and 288a, Penal Code. Defendant let the boy shoot his gun once, then he fired the remaining shells at a stick. Defendant removed a box of shells from underneath the seat of his ear to reload the gun. The boy also saw another gun in the glove compartment. Defendant drove the boy back to the place of their original meeting around 7 a. m. The boy took the license number of defendant’s car. He later identified defendant in the police showup. The boy’s mother testified that between 7:30 and 8 o’clock that morning her son complained to her of defendant’s misconduct.

When questioned at his home and later at the police station by Officer Ostroff of the Burbank police department, defendant denied any knowledge of the incident. When confronted face to face with the boy, defendant denied ever having seen him before. Two days later, however, while being questioned by the chief of police, after first asserting his innocence, he then admitted the commission of the acts charged. At the

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trial defendant denied making the admissions to which the officer testified.

Defendant’s story at the trial was that he left his motel in Sun Valley at about 5:30 or 5:45 on the particular Sunday morning and went down into Burbank to fill up his car with gas. He stopped to buy a paper from a newsboy and to lower the top of his Buick convertible. There were two revolvers on the back seat of his car. He placed them in the glove compartment. The boy accused him of being drunk and asked him. for money, saying he could make trouble for him. The boy was not in his car. Defendant drove back to his motel to get a canteen of water and then out in the hills beyond Seminole Hot Springs for some target practice.