People v. Shalhoob

SHINN, P. J.

By information Napoleon Shalhooh, Jr., was charged with the commission of four felonies, namely, in Count I with violation of the Corporate Securities Law, in violation of section 26104, subdivision (a) Corporations Code, in that he sold and issued for value to Dr. Donald E. Brannan a security, to wit, a certificate of interest in an oil and gas mining title and lease, without first having applied for and secured from the Commissioner of Corporations a permit so to do, and in succeeding counts with grand theft May 12, 1954, in taking $1,500, the personal property of Dr. Brannan; in Count III with grand theft of $1,250 from the same person on May 19, 1954, and in Count IY with having taken $920 from the same person on May 26, 1954. He was convicted in a jury trial of all the charged offenses and he appeals from the judgment.

It is not contended on the appeal that the evidence was insufficient to justify the verdict with respect to any of the

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charged offenses. The points on appeal are (1) the trial court erred in excluding evidence of transactions between appellant and the prosecuting witness after May 26, 1954; (2) the trial court erred in allowing over the objection of appellant proof of facts not charged in the information, which, if true, would have constituted another offense; and (3) the court erred in giving instructions inapplicable to the issues.

Appellant’s briefs do not recite the evidence and for the purposes of our opinion a brief outline of the same will be sufficient. Appellant represented to Dr. Brannan that he was the president of the Chieftain Oil Company, having a lease on 2,500 acres at Lompoc; that he was going to drill an oil well on it and needed additional financing. He represented that a group of millionaires were backing him; that they had allocated $50,000 for the venture and that he needed an additional $10,000. He showed Dr. Brannan and a Mr. Delaney a checkbook which purportedly showed a bank balance of over a million dollars. He left in the doctor’s office mailbox a proposed agreement which he had signed but which Dr. Brannan did not sign when advised by his attorney that it might have the legal effect of making him a partner or joint adventurer with appellant. On May 12, 1954, the doctor met appellant on the land and invested $1,500 in reliance upon appellant’s representations. On the several dates stated in the information Dr. Brannan made further investments of $1,250 and $920.