People v. Lariscy

THE COURT.

Defendants have appealed from convictions of murder of the first degree, upon verdict with no recommendation, and of several counts of robbery of the first degree, and attempted robbery. Defendant Larisey admitted a prior conviction of felony, and defendant Woollomes admitted two such prior convictions. The jury found that each was armed at the time of the commission of the offenses charged herein. Sentence of death was pronounced against each defendant on the murder counts.

No attack is made on the conviction on the robbery counts. On the murder charges, the evidence is sufficient to sustain the verdicts of murder in the first degree. The record shows that on February 23, 1938, a little after midnight, defendant Larisey and another man came to the Burp Hollow Cafe on North Western Avenue in Los Angeles. After sitting there for awhile, they arose and Larisey drew a revolver and announced that it was a “stick up”. He forced one of the waiters to open the cash register, another waiter and a customer to lie on the floor, and robbed the register. His

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companion also threatened those present with his gun. In the course of this robbery, either he or his companion shot and killed the proprietor, Harold A. Thompson, who was behind the bar. Although no witness testified as to exactly what happened at that moment, the events leading up to it and immediately following it were fully covered in the testimony. H. A. Touby, Lester Beeler, and Royal Tipton, employees of the cafe, testified to the facts just related. Beeler was the waiter who was compelled to lie down on the floor. Tipton was the waiter forced to open the cash register. Mrs. Samuels, a customer, and Alva Epperson, an entertainer, also observed the affair and gave similar testimony.

The identification of Lariscy was positive. That of Woollomes was not quite as strong, but was sufficient. Touby thought Lariscy’s companion “resembled” Woollomes except that he seemed heavier. Evelyn Morehead, a waitress, whose testimony at the preliminary examination was read into the record, said that Woollomes looked “very familiar”. Mrs. Samuels also thought the man resembled Woollomes. Epperson thought Woollomes was the man who shot Thompson, and Tipton identified Woollomes positively, as one of the two men who robbed the place. He also testified that at the time of the shot he saw Woollomes in front of the bar with smoke coming out of the barrel of his gun.