People v. Thorne

WASTE, C. J.

In an information filed by the district attorney of Los Angeles County, the defendant was charged with grand theft. He was tried by jury and convicted, whereupon he prosecuted this appeal from the judgment and order denying his motion for a new trial.

It appears that on or about November 13, 1936, defendant represented to the prosecuting witness that he had a device whereby he could enlarge the denomination of $1 bills. Three days later the parties repaired to an apartment house where the “victim” delivered approximately $2,600 in bills of varying denominations to the defendant. The bills of larger denomination were to be used solely for the purpose of getting imprints thereof which were to be transposed or transferred on to the $1 bills. The larger bills were to be returned to the prosecuting witness. Subsequent developments proved that defendant had understated his ability. Rather than merely change the denominations of the smaller bills, as promised, he caused all the bills to completely disappear. Briefly, the evidence discloses that the change in denomination of the smaller bills was to be accomplished by immersing the bills of larger denomination in a solution and then by means of a press and other paraphernalia to transpose or transfer on to blank paper the imprints of said bills which, in turn, were then to be similarly transposed or transferred on to the smaller bills which, in the meantime, also had been immersed in a solution and the color and printing removed therefrom. One of the solutions essential to the transposition was kept in the bathtub of the apartment. Defendant made frequent, but unaccompanied, trips to the bathroom for the ostensible purpose of there immersing the bills that had been delivered to him. On one of these trips he emerged from the bathroom with something wrapped in a towel and put it in a small black bag that theretofore had served to transport the essential equipment. After all the bills had been thus treated, defendant brought from the bathroom what appeared to be the complete stack of bills delivered to him by the prosecuting witness, with a $1 bill on the top

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and bottom. This stack was placed in the press. Defendant then stated that it was necessary for him to go to his distantly removed hotel for additional equipment. The prosecuting witness drove defendant to the hotel. While he waited in his automobile, the defendant, with the black bag, entered the hotel presumably to get the additional equipment. Defendant failed to return. Upon his return to the scene of the operations, the prosecuting witness found that the package which defendant had placed in the press consisted of a large stack of blank paper placed between two $1 bills. The jury in convicting defendant of grand theft as charged undoubtedly concluded that defendant, under cover of a towel, had placed in the bag the bills that had been delivered to him and, at the first opportunity, departed with them to places unknown.