People v. Henderson

FOURT, J.

The defendant was charged in an information with the crime of burglary, a felony, in violation of section 459 of the Penal Code, and with a prior robbery conviction.

The defendant entered a plea of not guilty to the charge, and denied the prior conviction. At the time of the trial, however, he admitted the prior conviction, as alleged in the information.

The defendant declined a court-appointed attorney, although the public defender, who had theretofore been appointed, announced that he was ready to proceed with the ease in defendant’s behalf. The defendant represented himself throughout the trial of the case. A verdict of guilty of burglary in the first degree was returned by the jury. Defendant made a motion for a new trial which was denied, and he was sentenced to the state prison for the term prescribed by law.

[507]

Appellant requested this court to appoint counsel to represent him in this appeal and counsel was so appointed.

The following facts appear from the evidence. In 1954, John A. Hendricks, a retired geologist, occupied a house near Las Palmas and Milner Streets, in the county of Los Angeles. On the night of December 24-25, 1954, he came home about 12:30 o’clock a. m. and went to bed. He went to sleep but was awakened sometime thereafter by a noise in another room of the house. He got up and observed a light under the living room door. The police were called and as they arrived Hendricks saw that the living room light had been turned out. Later he saw a flashlight in the kitchen and someone near the ice box. On the kitchen floor there was scattered glass from a broken window. The police searched the house and found the defendant hidden under a bed in a bedroom other than the one occupied by Hendricks. Some meat and bread previously located in the ice box were found under the bed where the defendant was hiding. Hendricks had never seen the defendant before, and had not given him, nor anyone else, permission to enter his home.

E. P. Chamberlain, a police officer, testified that he received the call from Hendricks for police assistance at about 1:35 a. m., and that he with Officer Twoomey, proceeded to the home of Hendricks. Officer Chamberlain discovered the defendant under the bed and directed him to come out, and the defendant complied. The defendant at first refused to disclose to the officers his address. Officer Chamberlain testified that at the time of the arrest he could smell liquor on the defendant’s breath and that the defendant seemed to be in an irrational state of mind.