People v. Taylor

WHITE, J.

Defendant was convicted of a violation of subdivision 3 of section 337a of the Penal Code, which declares it a crime to receive, hold or forward, “in any manner whatsoever, any money, thing or consideration of value, or the equivalent or memorandum thereof, staked, pledged, bet or wagered . . . upon the result, or purported result, of any trial, or purported trial, or contest, or purported contest, of skill, speed or power of endurance of man or beast, or between men, beasts, or mechanical apparatus, or upon the result, or purported result, of any lot, chance, casualty, unknown or contingent event whatsoever”.

Trial by jury was waived and the cause submitted for decision upon the evidence adduced at the preliminary hearing, which consisted of the testimony of one of the arresting officers to the effect that he observed the defendant on the street for about ten minutes; saw him on three or four different occasions speak to men on the street; that “money would change hands and the defendant would go to a telephone in this wine store”; that he did not hear any of the conversation between the defendant and the men on the street; that before defendant left the two men they had looked at a National Scratch Sheet; that ‘ ‘ when the money' had changed hands the defendant started for the wine store. I went around the corner and entered the wine store. The defendant was dialing a number. I stood approximately two or three feet behind him and heard the defendant say ‘784, one to win, B. K. 786, one to win, A. R.’ He just hung up the receiver when an unidentified man stepped up to him and said, "I want one to win on 784. ’ The defendant said, ‘O. K.’ He dialed a number and as he was finishing dialing he turned around and saw me, hung the phone up and started to walk away, when I placed him under arrest.” The officer further testified that a National Scratch Sheet of that date, containing notations and prices of previous races that day, was found on the defendant’s person, together with $97, mostly in one-dollar bills, and several dollars in silver; that the number 784 appeared on the scratch sheet opposite the name of the horse Electrose running that day; that the number 786 referred to a horse named Caníbal,

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running in the same race; that after his arrest the defendant said that he took bets only on the street and did not go in any place of business; and that “during the conversation in the car with officers Gunn, Allen, myself and the defendant, we asked him who he was making a book for. He said that was Lollie’s corner, and he used to make a book for him, and he was still making a book for him and no one else was on the corner. I asked—Officer Allen asked him how he made his bets. He said he laid off all his bets over the telephone as soon as he received them.”