People v. Carter

66 Cal.2d 666 (1967) 427 P.2d 214 58 Cal. Rptr. 614 THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

ROY LEROY CARTER, Defendant and Appellant.

Docket No. Crim. 10853. Supreme Court of California. In Bank.

May 5, 1967. [667] Martin Wolman, under appointment by the Supreme Court, and Gillin & Scott for Defendant and Appellant.

Thomas C. Lynch, Attorney General, William E. James, Assistant Attorney General, and Anthony M. Summers, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

MOSK, J.

Once again the failure of a trial court to navigate adroitly between the Scylla of denying a defendant the right to determine his own fate and the Charybdis of violating his right to counsel by acceptance of an ineffectual waiver has brought a prosecution to grief.

Defendant appeals from judgments of conviction of kidnaping for the purpose of robbery (Pen. Code, § 209) and robbery while armed with a deadly weapon (Pen. Code, § 211a). Defendant argues, inter alia, that his waiver of counsel at trial was conditional and that the failure of the trial court to accept the condition or advise defendant at the time of his purported waiver that it intended to reject the condition was error which deprived defendant of his constitutional right to counsel. We have concluded that defendant did not effectively waive his right to counsel, and since the trial proceeded without counsel, the judgments of conviction must be reversed.

Defendant, with one Russell Gordon, was charged in count I of an information with kidnaping Homer Coran on May 29, 1965, for the purpose of robbery, and it was alleged that at the time of the commission of the offense defendant and Gordon were armed with a deadly weapon. In count II defendant, with Russell Gordon, was charged with robbing Homer Coran of $59 on May 29, 1965, and it was alleged that at the time of the commission of the offense defendant and Gordon were armed with a deadly weapon. Defendant is the only party with whom we are here concerned.