People v. Dagampat

SHINN, P. J.,

In a court trial, Frederick M. Dagampat and Leo Soto Contreras were found guilty of kidnaping and were committed to the Youth Authority. Dagampat appeals from the judgment and the denial of his motion for new trial. Contreras has not appealed.

The evidence consisted of that received at the preliminary hearing and additional evidence introduced at the trial. Stanley Jaramillo, aged 15, was the complaining witness. As Stanley was walking away from a friend’s house near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Beaudry on the night of December 7, 1957, an open convertible containing three boys drove up and stopped beside him. Appellant was the driver of the car; Contreras and a boy named Johnny Valencia were in the back seat. Valencia got out of the car and entered a drugstore on the corner. Appellant told Stanley: “Get into the car. I want to talk to you about the fight.” (On November 29, Stanley had witnessed a fight during which Contreras had stabbed one Manuel Avalos with a knife.) Stanley looked at Dagampat and Contreras, “and they were as if they were giving me some dirty looks”; he turned and saw Valencia approaching him from behind. Asked what he was afraid of, he testified: “Well, you know, like what they did to Manuel. I was scared they might do that to me, too. . . . Stab me too. ’ ’ Stanley said “All right.” He got into the ear and appellant drove away from the intersection. Stanley testified that the boys displayed no weapons and made no threats, but he entered the car because he was afraid of being stabbed.

After the car had proceeded for half a block, Contreras asked Stanley if he had witnessed the stabbing of Avalos. Upon receiving an affirmative answer, Contreras and Valencia began to hit him. The car stopped in an alley a few blocks away from Sunset and Beaudry and appellant opened the door. Stanley pushed appellant out of the car. After all four boys had alighted, Stanley was held by the jacket while the others hit him; they laughed as they administered the beating; Valencia also gouged his eyes. Stanley then slipped out of his jacket and ran away; as he was running, he was hit on the head by a bottle. On cross-examination, Stanley

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was asked whether he entered the car voluntarily and he replied: “Not because I wanted to.” He admitted that he had not asked to be let out of the car and had not attempted to leave the car or to call for help. He was also asked the following question: “Now, . . . they just asked you if you wanted to get in the car at the drug store, didn’t they?” and he answered “Yes.”