People v. Haywood

California Court of Appeal Jun 13, 1958 No. Crim. 6035Published

Before: White

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Holding. The court held that the magistrate had sufficient evidence to establish reasonable and probable cause to believe the defendant committed burglary, and therefore the superior court erred in setting aside the information.

Issues

Whether the corpus delicti of burglary was established.
Whether there was reasonable and probable cause to hold the defendant to answer in superior court.

Disposition. reversed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“To say that these facts do not constitute the corpus delicti of the crime of burglary is to do violence to reason and challenge credulity.”

“The evidence necessary to justify an order holding a defendant to answer to the superior court is not subject to the same test as that before a trial jury in a criminal action”

“The court is only to determine whether the magistrate, acting as a man of ordinary caution or prudence, could conscientiously entertain a reasonable suspicion that a public offense had been committed in which the defendant had participated.”

[309]

WHITE, P. J.

In an information filed by the district attorney of Los Angeles County, the above named defendants were charged with the crime of burglary (Pen. Code, § 459).

Defendant Haywood entered his plea of not guilty, which plea was later withdrawn, and a motion was made under Penal Code, section 995, to set aside the information on the ground that defendant had been committed without reasonable or probable cause. The motion was granted and defendant Haywood ordered discharged from custody. From such order the People prosecute this appeal.

Concerning the background of this prosecution, the record reflects that the following is a fair epitome of the evidence presented to the committing magistrate. Ejner Jensen is an assistant superintendent of installations for the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles, and had seen People’s Exhibit 1 for identification, which was an assortment of copper and other materials. The last time he had seen these materials was the latter part of February or the first part of March, 1957, at the department’s patrol station on the corner of Century and Clovis Avenue within the boundaries of Station B in Los Angeles. The materials were inside of a stucco building with four walls and a roof and metal doors and windows. These materials (People’s Exhibit 1) were the property of the department of water and power and are peculiar in that the department of water and power is the only utility in the country to use those fittings.

No one was given any permission or consent to remove the articles in People’s Exhibit 1 for identification from the premises in question. The department of water and power manufactures the pieces in its own shops.

R. B. McCaulou is a chief electrical plant operator for the bureau of power and light and supervises the premises located at Century and Clovis Avenue. He recognized items, like those in People’s Exhibit 1 for identification, and has items such as these stored in the building at Century and Clovis Avenue, which is in the county of Los Angeles. He gave no one consent or permission to remove these items from that building.

Edwin J. Sanders is one of the arresting police officers in this case. On April 30, 1957, at approximately 11 p. m., he was standing on the west side of Clovis Avenue and

People v. Haywood

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WHITE, P. J.

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