People v. Shapiro

WHITE, J.

The defendant was charged by information with the crime of violation of subdivision 2 of section 337a of the Penal Code, in that he kept or occupied a room or building with books, papers or paraphernalia for the purpose of recording or registering bets upon horse races. A trial by jury having been waived and the cause submitted to the trial court upon the transcript of testimony taken at the preliminary hearing, defendant was found guilty and judgment entered accordingly. From such judgment, and from the order denying his motion for a new' trial, this appeal is prosecuted.

The evidence presented at the preliminary hearing is contained entirely in the testimony of a police officer, who testified that he arrested the defendant on January 17, 1940, in an apartment in the city of Los Angeles. Before entering the apartment the witness and another officer observed the interior through a front window. “Looking through a front window w'e could see this defendant seated in a corner, the southeast corner of the living room, in a sort óf armchair with a small coffee table pulled up in front of him, and on this coffee table w'ere many betting markers laid out, spread out, and a telephone. He was at different times talking over the telephone and picking up various betting markers and making notes on them. We went to the door of the apartment at w'hich I listened for a considerable time. I could hear conversation, and at one time I heard the voice say, ‘727, five to win and five to place’. And I heard other numbers also, but I did not distinguish them altogether. Later I checked this 727 and found it to be a horse running at Santa Anita that day in the seventh race. ... We got a key and entered the apartment and the defendant was still seated at the same table that I had previously seen him at, and I placed him under arrest. . . . there u'as another man and two ladies. A lady was lying on the davenport. I think she was ill. . . . These are the betting markers that I saw on the coffee table, and this one in particular had the number ‘727’ five to win and five to place, that I had heard out in the hall. I checked that with the scratch sheet and found it to be a horse called

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‘Carvola’ running in the seventh race at Santa Anita that day. . . . Q. . . . Did you at any time see the defendant write anything on any of these papers? A. I saw him make several notations on some of them, but I could not pick out which he did. Q. Did you see whether or not he had a pencil in his hands? A. He did, yes, sir. Q. Officer, are these ABC betting markers papers that are commonly used by bookmakers in Los Angeles? A. They are, yes, sir. Q. What else, if anything, did you find at that address? A. We found a form sheet and the two National Scratch Sheets.