People v. Lopez

POX, J.

Defendant was convicted of first degree robbery. He appeals from the judgment and the order denying his motion for a new trial.

On January 4,1952, at approximately 11 p.m., Carl Morgan, a mill operator, was standing on the sidewalk in the vicinity of Sunset Boulevard and Silverlake, in Los Angeles. An unknown man approached him from the rear, grabbed him around the neck, and struck him in the jaw with “some hard object,” with very serious results. The criminal then beat and kicked his victim and took his jacket and $52 from his billfold. There were street' lights in the vicinity. The injured man viewed his assailant’s face from a distance of not more than 5 feet and noticed he was wearing khaki trousers, a maroon sport coat, and a blue sport shirt. While Morgan was not rendered wholly unconscious he did not fully regain consciousness for about seven minutes, when he was picked up by a police squad car. About an hour later, from the description supplied by the victim, the officers apprehended defendant, talking to the manager of a motel on Sunset Boulevard, which was about 800 yards from the scene of the assault and robbery. Underneath his maroon sport coat the officers found the jacket that had been taken from Morgan, who identified it by a 1-inch tear in the left pocket and by the laundry mark. Defendant first said he got the jacket from the state but later claimed he had purchased it from an unidentified person for a couple of dollars after he had left a certain café that night with his girl friend. The defendant was identified by Morgan as his assailant. When defendant was removed from the police car and brought under the street light for purposes of identification, the officers noticed that he made a throwing motion and discovered on the floor of the car $49 crumpled up and directly in front of the place where defendant had been seated. Defendant initially denied any knowledge of this money. He first claimed he only had $5.00 on his person; later, however, he changed his story and stated he had about $60. He thought the money on the floor of the police car fell out of his billfold.

[237]

Defendant contends that (1) the evidence is insufficient to sustain his conviction, and (2) he was framed by the police.

The identification of defendant by the victim and his possession of the victim’s jacket, which the owner also identified, furnish substantial evidence in support of the jury’s implied finding that it was the defendant who attacked and robbed Mr. Morgan.