People v. Humphries

DRAPEAU, J.

By information, defendant was charged with the crime of burglary and four prior convictions of felony. Trial by jury was duly waived and defendant was adjudged guilty as charged. The court found the crime to be burglary of the second degree and the allegations of prior convictions to be true.

From the judgment of conviction, defendant appeals.

By stipulation, the testimony given at the preliminary hearing was read into the record. From this it appears that when Attorney Barton left his office in the late afternoon of October 27, 1953, there was a dictascriber, or wire recording machine, on his desk. When he returned the next morning this was missing. He identified People’s Exhibit 1 as the missing dictascriber.

Mr. Young, the owner of the building where the law offices were located, received a call from his maintenance man early in the morning of October 28th. Upon his arrival at the building, he found a window screen broken and papers strewn about his office. Other offices were in a state of disarray. In an open area at the rear, Mr. Young saw a typewriter belonging to one tenant and a typewriter cover which belonged to another tenant.

Mr. Irwin, the maintenance man, testified that when he reached the building on October 28th around 5:30 a. m., he met defendant coming from the rear carrying a typewriter.

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When he questioned him, defendant told him he had found the typewriter. In an ensuing struggle, defendant broke away leaving the typewriter on the ground. This witness also testified that he caught defendant breaking into another office on October 12th, but that he got away. He identified defendant from a group of pictures shown to him.

Mr. Wilson, a deputy sheriff and qualified expert on fingerprinting, took defendant’s fingerprints. He testified that the prints on cards from Folsom Prison, Nevada and Utah state prisons, and from the penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, and those he had taken of defendant, were all fingerprints of the same person.

Mr. Wilburn testified he had known defendant for about three months prior to October 28th. At 6 in the morning of that day, defendant brought a dietascriber to the witness’ home and told him he was going to pawn it. Mr. Wilburn was arrested at his home about 5 p. m. on October 28th by Officer Jones.