People v. Cook

WOOD, J.

Defendant and appellant Edward Cook was tried before the court without a jury together with defendants

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Davis and Weisbrod on an information charging them with the theft of certain bonds of the value of $5,000. All of the defendants were found guilty and appellant prosecutes this appeal from the judgment and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

The evidence relied upon for conviction comes mainly from the complaining witness, Mrs. Powell. From her testimony the following circumstances appear: Defendant Davis called upon her on October 26, 1934, and stated that he and the other two defendants had made arrangements with the manager of a country club in the city of Long Beach for the sale of membership tickets in the club; that the tickets would entitle the holders to membership in the club and would also qualify them to be officers of the club, the election of officers to be by drawing, the president to receive a salary of $20,000. Davis said they were going to consummate the deal through defendant Cook, who had a Chinese friend in San Francisco having 2,500 agencies on the coast where the tickets could be sold; that the tickets could be sold in pool halls, barber shops and cigar stores. Davis asked her for $5,000 “to put the deal over’’. Mrs. Powell disclaimed interest in the project and Davis suggested that Cook could explain more about the scheme and that he would have Cook call upon her. Davis told her she was to receive a bonus of $5,000 in addition to the return of her money; that the Chinaman, as distributing agent for the memberships would receive 20 per cent of the gross receipts, 55 per cent would be distributed to the members in salaries, and the balance would be for the three defendants after the repayment to Mrs. Powell of her money and the payment of the bonus. Cook called upon her on October 29, 1934, and repeated in substance the statements made by Davis. She manifested some interest in the matter and Cook called upon her again on October 30th and also on October 31st. Cook asked Mrs. Powell what bonds she had and she showed him a list of her holdings. Finally Mrs. Powell went with Cook to a bank where she obtained the bonds needed for the scheme and they then returned to her apartment. She gave him bonds of the value of $5,000 and he delivered to her a promissory note signed by each of the defendants and also promised to give her the accrued interest on the bonds. At the same time he delivered to her a document entitled ‘1 Temporary Receipt and Agreement ’ ’. In this docu