People v. Clemison

DRAPEAU, J.

Shortly after midnight two police officers, cruising in a patrol ear, observed an automobile standing on Wilshire Boulevard, near the Soldiers Home at Sawtelle. Three men were in the vicinity. One was behind the wheel of the car; another was standing on the sidewalk; the third was in a telephone booth.

The officers made a U-turn and came back to the automobile. By then the three men were seated in the car. The officers arrested them. Found in the ear were pieces of bent wire called “picks,’’.and other tools which could be used to pick the locks of coin boxes in pay telephones; also a paper bag containing $23.30 in nickels, dimes and quarters.

The man who was on the sidewalk later confessed that he and the other two men had been rifling coin boxes in pay telephone booths for several

weeks;

that he was the lookout man ; that one of the other two men actually picked the locks and took the coin boxes out of telephones; that after an evening’s work they would divide the proceeds

equally;

and that on the evening in question they had successfully picked a box on South Western Avenue in Los Angeles, had tried unsuccessfully to pick several other boxes, and were attempting to rob the coin box in the telephone booth on Wilshire Boulevard when they were arrested.

The three men were charged with three counts of burglary, 2d degree. On the trial the information against one defendant was dismissed. He later testified in the case. The two remaining defendants were convicted of two counts of burglary 2d degree, and acquitted of the third count.

One of these two defendants was granted probation. The remaining defendant was denied probation and was sentenced to state’s prison. From this judgment he appeals.

The appealing defendant is the man who was seen by the officers in the telephone booth on Wilshire. It may be inferred from the evidence on the trial that the picks and other implements, and the money in nickels, dimes, and quarters, were in his possession.

The evidence shows that the lock on the coin box in the tele

[681]