People v. Steinfeld

38 Cal.App.2d 280 (1940) THE PEOPLE, Respondent,

v.

MORRIS STEINFELD, Appellant.

Crim. No. 3310. California Court of Appeals. Second Appellate District, Division Two.

April 2, 1940. Irwin H. Roth for Appellant.

Earl Warren, Attorney-General, Warner I. Praul, Deputy Attorney-General, Buron Fitts, District Attorney, and Jere J. Sullivan, Deputy District Attorney, for Respondent.

Wood, J.

Defendant was charged by information with the crime of violating subdivision 2 of section 337a of the Penal Code in that he kept and occupied a room for the [281] purpose of recording wagers on horse races. He was found guilty at a trial by the court without a jury and prosecutes the present appeal from the judgment of conviction.

[1] From the evidence presented by the prosecution it appears that defendant was arrested on August 19, 1939, in a room at the rear of a barber shop at 4370 West Adams Street in the city of Los Angeles. When the officers arrived there were about ten persons in the room and just outside the door in the back yard there were fifteen or twenty more persons. The room contained paraphernalia that was being used in violation of the code section under which defendant is prosecuted. In his brief defendant concedes that the evidence is sufficient to establish that the room was being used to record wagers on races but contends that the evidence fails to establish that he was the party who kept or occupied the room. In one corner of the room was a desk which one of the officers described as "an L-shaped desk that fitted around one corner and makes a square with the two walls". When the officers entered defendant was behind this desk and talking over the telephone. The receiver was at his ear and he was talking numbers into the telephone, the officer hearing him say "one across". A woman, identified as Mrs. Etta Cross, walked up to defendant and laid a one dollar bill on the desk saying, "Give me 305 to place". Defendant looked at Mrs. Cross and nodded. An examination of the "run down sheet" which was found in the room revealed that 305 was the number of a horse named "Lieutenant Greenock", running in the sixth race at Del Mar. On the desk in front of defendant the officers found a number of papers known as "take sheets" which, according to the testimony, are instruments commonly used by persons who record wagers on horse races. No person other than defendant was behind the desk. When the officers placed defendant under arrest they asked him how long he had been at the premises in question and also if he was the owner of the "take sheets" and "racing forms" found on the premises. To these questions defendant refused to give any answer at all and refused to converse with the officers other than to give his name. After his conviction defendant was arraigned for judgment and at that time he told the court that he was guilty of the offense for which he had been tried. The record discloses the following: