People v. Jackson

VAN DYKE, P. J.

After a preliminary hearing before a magistrate, respondents were held on a complaint charging them with burglary. An information was filed against them

[555]

and they moved the superior court to set it aside upon the grounds that they had been committed without reasonable or probable cause. The motion was granted and the People appeal.

The facts as shown at the preliminary examination are as follows: Mrs. Monica Ney was the owner of property consisting of an unoccupied dwelling house located in Stanislaus County. On March 3, 1956, she stopped at the premises and discovered that numerous items of furniture were missing; that a back door had been opened and the premises ransacked. It is not claimed that the proof of the corpus delicti was not sufficiently established. It appeared that numerous items which had been removed from the Ney premises were on March 2, 1956, consigned by defendants Jackson and Allen to one McCoy, a used furniture auctioneer in Hayward, who sold the articles except for two marble-top dressers. These were taken back by respondents and sold to a used furniture shop. In negotiating with McCoy, respondent Jackson signed his name “Lee Jakson” and in his dealings with the used furniture dealer he gave a false name, “H. Johnson, ’ ’ taking a check made out to him in that name. In talking with the investigating officer, Jackson first denied ever having sold any furniture in Hayward, but on further questioning, admitted that he had made such a sale and stated to the officer that he had purchased the articles from a man known as H. Green from whom he had taken a bill of sale. The officer and Jackson went to Jackson’s home and obtained a bill of sale bearing a signature “H. Green.” Also, Jackson stated to Bates that he had not been accompanied to Hayward by Allen and later on admitted that Allen had been with him. Bates talked with Allen, who first said he had never sold any articles of furniture to McCoy and then admitted that he had been with Jackson when the furniture was consigned. McCoy testified that in Allen’s presence Jackson had stated that Allen was his partner.

It is familiar law that proof produced at a preliminary hearing is sufficient if it establishes reasonable and probable cause. It need not establish guilt. Reasonable and probable cause means such a state of facts presented to the magistrate as would lead a man of ordinary caution to believe and conscientiously entertain a strong suspicion that the person accused is guilty.