People v. Bycel

WHITE, P. J.

In an information filed by the district attorney of Los Angeles County, defendant was charged with three separate violations of buying or receiving stolen property, a felony (Pen. Code, § 496).

In Count I, defendant was charged with having bought and received a stolen adding machine on or about September 3, 1952. Count II charged the felonious purchase and receipt of a calculator on or about August 28, 1952, which machine had been stolen. The third count alleged that on or about

[597]

June 5, 1952, defendant bought and received two adding machines knowing them to have been stolen.

Defendant moved to dismiss the information under section 995 of the Penal Code. His motion was granted as to Count II and denied as to Counts I and III. Following entry of not guilty pleas as to the last-named counts, the cause proceeded to trial before a jury which returned verdicts of guilty under both counts of the information. Defendant’s motion

for

a new trial was granted as to Count III and denied as to Count I. Proceedings were suspended and defendant granted conditional probation on Count I. Count II was dismissed.

From the judgment of conviction (see Pen. Code § 1237, subd. 1) and from the order denying his motion for

a

new trial, defendant prosecutes this appeal.

We regard the following as a fair epitome of the factual background surrounding this prosecution. On the second or third day of September, 1952, one Charles Linson burglarized the premises of the Trojan Bookkeeping Service in the city of Los Angeles, removing therefrom two adding machines, a calculator, and a typewriter, which he placed in his automobile and departed. Two or three days later, Linson went to Fifty-fifth and Long Beach Boulevard to consult with the defendant, at the One Spot liquor store. Linson told defendant that he wanted to make a deal concerning the machines. He told the defendant he wanted to “deal” the machines off. The defendant asked what kind they were, and Linson told him. The former then asked where the machines were and Linson told him they were in a car, and the defendant looked in the car and saw them. The two men then came back to the store and the defendant made a telephone call. He then had Linson write on a piece of paper, ‘' Globe Bottling Company” and the name “Cal.”