People v. Melendrez

YORK, P. J.

Defendants and appellants herein were charged with and convicted of the crimes of kidnaping for the purpose of robbery in violation of section 209 of the Penal Code, as alleged in count I of the amendéd information; of rape, as alleged in count II; of robbery, as alleged in count III, and of kidnaping for the purpose of robbery, as alleged in count IV of said information. The two kidnaping charges involved two different victims, one a young woman and the other her companion, a man by the name of Child.

This appeal is taken from the sentence and judgments of conviction and from an order denying motions for new trial.

All of the appellants and one Jesus Pantoja, nicknamed “Chito”,.drove up in an automobile and stopped across the road and slightly to the rear of another automobile in which the young woman and Child were sitting, this car being parked on a road in the vicinity of Montebello in the county of Los Angeles between 11 and 11:30 o’clock of the evening

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of May 23, 1937. Chito was but seventeen years of age and was not made a defendant in the instant action. When appellants’ car stopped Chito and Correa got out and were followed a moment ,or two later by the other two appellants, Melendrez and Olivas. Chito opened the door of Child’s ear holding in his hand a knife with a five-inch blade, and took a poeketbook belonging to the young woman, which contained a sum of money. She never saw it again. Appellant Melendrez broke a window of the car and sustained a cut on his hand. Chito, holding the knife to Child’s stomach, ordered Child out of the car and told him to walk. Child was backed for a distance of from 50 to 75 feet from the ear and was required to remain there for about five minutes, during which time the young woman was pulled out of Child’s car by appellant Melendrez and forced to the back of the car where she tried to get loose. She struggled, kicked and tried to bite Melendrez and when she started to scream he put his hands on her throat and choked her so that she could not breathe. Melendrez then hit her in the face and on the nose from which beating she sustained a black eye and a bruised face. After being struck a great many times, she fell to the ground. She tried to arise but was very much dazed from the blows she had received, and while on the ground appellant Melendrez committed an act of sexual intercourse upon her. She was then picked up from the ground and shoved into the back seat of appellant’s car, Melendrez, who sat on the back seat with her, covering her face and mouth with his hands. Appellants Correa and Olivas occupied the front seat with Olivas driving. After the car was started and in motion, it was slowed down in order to allow Chito, who had been keeping Child away at the point of a knife, to run and jump in; whereupon a gasoline-soaked cloth was placed over the young woman’s face. She was then jammed into a corner of the car and while her feet were held by someone in the front seat, two acts of sexual intercourse were committed upon her, one by Chito and the other by a different man, whose face prosecutrix did not see. The car was then driven into the hills of Montebello where it was stopped and the prosecutrix taken out, shoved off the road and down an incline to a hollow spot among a lot of tin cans, where appellant Correa had sexual intercourse with her. As soon as appellants left she ran down the road to a highway and was taken home by