People v. Billingsley

BRAY, J.

Defendants werecharged with violation of section 211, Penal Code (robbery armed with a gun). Defendant Billingsley was also charged with a prior conviction of two counts of larceny. The jury found both guilty of robbery in the first degree and of being armed with a deadly weapon. It also found the prior conviction of defendant Billingsley to be true. Both defendants appeal from the judgment and the order denying new trial.

Questions Presented

1. Sufficiency of evidence of possession of a gun.

2. Did the court order a conviction?

Evidence

About noon February 15, 1957, Robert C. Chenault, a postal employee, having just cashed his pay check ($130.15) at a bank, was walking east on Page Street, San Francisco. He was carrying his 2-year old daughter in his arms. At a point near to 530 Page Street defendant Yolo stopped him. Yolo showed him a card with the name Bessie Smith, Eagle Rock Hotel, Pea Green Street, on it and asked its location. Thereupon defendant Billingsley “came up and placed what looked to be a gun in my, in my side, in my ribs; told me to hold still or don’t move, and he quickly took his other hand and took my money out of my pocket, and he and the other fellow left up the street running.” Chenault took time off from his job to look for the robbers. On February 21st he saw them on the street but by the time he could call the police department and the police arrived they had disappeared. On February 24th he again saw them and had them arrested by the police.

About 12 :30 on February 15th Roy L. Doss drove up to his home at 530 Page Street and stopped his ear on the sidewalk driveway. He then noticed Chenault, whom he did not know, walking up the street with a little girl in his arms. He also noticed both defendants, whom he likewise did not know, standing by a fence next to his apartment. As Chenault approached the two men stopped him. Doss then got out of his car, went in to the house, took his coat off, put some coveralls on, picked up a screwdriver and returned to the street. There he saw Chenault coming back down the

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street, crying and screaming. The defendants were gone. Chenault said he had been robbed and asked Doss to call the police. Doss was not in the house over two minutes.