People v. MacHabie

THE COURT.

A hearing was granted to William 0. Beed by this court after the order denying a new trial of the action in which he was convicted was affirmed by the District

[68]

Court of Appeal. With certain modifications, the conclusions stated by Mr. Justice Wood as the reasons for the decision are now adopted as the opinion of this court. They are as follows:

“Defendant Reed and one Machabie were convicted of burglary of the second degree and grand theft. Trial by jury was waived. Proceedings were suspended as to Reed and he was placed on probation. Reed appeals from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

“He contends that the evidence was not sufficient to justify the decision. The evidence shows that between the hours of 6 :15 p. m. on March 5, 1947, and 8:30 a. m. on March 6, 1947, burglary and grand theft were committed at the warehouse of S. L. Abbott Company in Los Angeles. The skylight of the building was broken and the lock on a rear-entrance door at the delivery ‘pit’ had been pried off, and 98 sacks of pure shellac of an approximate value of $10,000 —each sack weighing 164 pounds—had been taken from the building. One week later 88 of those sacks of shellac were found in a garage at 10501 Zamorra Street, Watts, California. This kind of shellac is used principally in the production of the phonograph record material that is known as ‘the biscuits’ in the phonograph record manufacturing business.

“Mr. Jackson, a witness called by the plaintiff, testified that he resided at 1051 Zamorra Street in Watts, and that he operated a service station at 5251 Central Avenue, Los Angeles; that on March 5, 1947, about 1 p. m., appellant, whom he had known about three years, came to the service station and told him that he wanted to rent a garage ‘to store some stuff in’; that it was ‘arranged’ to rent the garage, which did not have a roof'on it, until the roof was put on and the owner was ready to use it; that between 11 p. m. on March 5th, and 1 a. m. on March 6th, appellant came to the front door of his (witness’) house and told him that some ‘fellows’ were bringing ‘some stuff’ to put in the garage and ‘don’t be alarmed’ if he should ‘hear some noise out there, don’t think someone was breaking in the house’; that after appellant left, he (witness) heard the motor of a truck in the driveway; that on March 9th, appellant went to the service station and paid the $8.00 rent, and at that time, in response to Jackson’s request that the garage be vacated, appellant said he would have the stuff moved out the next day, March 10th; that he saw appellant, the next time, on March 12th at appellant’s home when he (witness) went there with police officers,