People v. Hood

FOURT, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction and order of commitment made and entered in the superior court in and for the county of Santa Barbara on October 15, 1956.

In an information filed in Santa Barbara County defendant was charged with a violation of the provisions of section 12020 of the Penal Code, namely the felonious possession of a “billy club.” By stipulation the matter was presented to the trial court upon the transcript of the proceedings had in the preliminary hearing. The defendant consented to the stipulation and waived a jury trial and was found guilty as charged. He made an application for probation, but apparently later reconsidered and withdrew the application, and the court thereupon ordered the probation officer to make a presentence report. The defendant was sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison for the time prescribed by law.

A résumé of the facts is as follows: On August 17, 1956, Harry Hobson, a policeman of the Santa Barbara police force, was informed by a man named Pembleton that he had been the victim of a robbery and that the robber drove a “’49 or ’50 Chevy two-door dropped down in the back end”; that the robber was about 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighed about 150 pounds, was dark complexioned and had dark curly hair. Pembleton told Officer Hobson that the man, later identified by Pembleton, struck him, knocked him down, struck him several times while he was on the ground, and that while he was in the latter position he felt his wallet being pulled out of his pocket and that the robber then ran away.

The next day Officer Hobson, in ordinary street clothes, saw the defendant through a porch screen at an address on Haley Street in Santa Barbara and asked him to come out. When the defendant complied with the request Hobson then identified himself as being from the police department and asked the defendant if he would go to the police station with

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bim and “be checked ont on a robbery case”. The defendant stated that he would do so and Hobson asked him if he would drive his own car. Defendant stated that he had no driver’s license, but that Hobson could drive defendant’s car and that he would go with him. Hobson then drove the defendant’s automobile with defendant riding therein to the police station.