People v. Russell

VAN DYKE, P. J.

Appellant was charged with the crime of robbery and was convicted by a jury of that crime in the second degree. He appeals from the judgment and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

About midnight on August 20, 1952, two police officers in a patrol car noticed a “scuffle” in front of St. Mary’s Parish House near the intersection of Washington and Hunter Streets in Stockton. They stopped two men who were walking away from the scene, one of whom was appellant. The officers searched the men and questioned them. Appellant told them that a drunken white man had staggered into him, called him a “nigger” and that he had shoved the man out of his way. At the time one Claud Dollar was sitting on or leaning against the steps of the parish house. He got up, walked over and leaned against an iron railing, and the officers testified that he appeared to them to be apparently normal and not injured in any way, although they did not examine him closely. They told appellant and his companion to be on their way and the officers drove on. But one of them said to the other that all did not seem to be right, so they turned their car and drove back to the scene. They then saw appellant walking across the street, away from the parish house, and they found Claud Dollar lying down on or by the front step. His left eye was cut and bleeding. They searched appellant and removed a wallet from his right front trousers’ pocket. It was the wallet of Claud Dollar. They also found in appellant’s left front trousers’ pocket two $20 bills and one $10 bill. He also had a $1.00 bill. It is stated in respondent’s statement of facts that this money was identified as being that of Claud Dollar, but that statement is not borne out by the record. Appellant was asked why he had returned to the parish house and he said he had gone back to look for a newspaper he had dropped, that he had not found it, had given up the search and was walking across the street when the officers stopped him. A newspaper such as he described was found by the officers lying on the sidewalk near the parish house. Appellant said he had picked up the wallet from the sidewalk and denied taking it from Dollar. The prosecuting witness, Claud Dollar, had been drinking. He said he

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left his residence in the afternoon with about $57, two twenties, a ten, a five and some change. He had played draw poker in the Savoy Bar where he did his drinking. He recalled starting home and had no further recollection of what occurred that night until he found himself in the hospital where the cut on his eye was being sutured. He said he did not recall ever having seen appellant until the preliminary hearing. He knew nothing of the incidents above related. He identified his wallet. But as to what occurred after he left the bar he said his mind was just a blank. Appellant claimed that the money found on him was his own; that he had earned it in part and in part had received it from his father in Texas. In support of this statement he produced the manager of the Stockton office of the Western Union Telegraph Company who produced the records of his company to show that on the day before the alleged offense the sum of $50 had been transmitted to appellant by telegraph from Texas, by one Willie Russell.