People v. Thompson

SHINN, P. J.

Charles Jesse Thompson was accused by information of petty theft with a prior felony conviction of forcibly assaulting a United States customs officer. (Pen. Code, § 667.) By separate information, his brother, David L. Thompson, was accused of petty theft with a prior conviction of petty theft. (Pen. Code, § 666.) Defendants pleaded not guilty and each cause was submitted to the court on the transcript of the preliminary hearing. No defense was offered in either case. The court found defendants guilty as charged in the two informations and each was sentenced to imprisonment in the county jail for the term of one year. Defendants appeal from the judgments of conviction. Although there are separate appeals the defendants were together when the offenses were committed and the evidence against each was substantially the same. The sole contention in each case is that the evidence was insufficient to prove the offense of theft.

There was evidence of the following facts: Ross L. Childers

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is a police officer for the City of Los Angeles, assigned to the Wilshire Detective Division. In his spare time he is employed at the Thrifty Drug Store located at Wilshire and Fairfax in Los Angeles. Childers testified that he was on duty at the store on December 9, 1956. Defendants entered the store around 1:30 p.m. and went to the phonograph record section. David Thompson selected seven long-playing records from a display rack, concealed them inside his coat and started to leave the store. Childers testified: “I placed the defendant [David Thompson] under arrest after he had gone through the checkstand without paying for anything. ...” At the moment of the arrest, David was about 10 feet past the check-stand at the cigarette counter; he was still in a portion of the store where there was merchandise available for customers to choose.

Immediately after the arrest of David, Childers saw Charles select eight phonograph records from a display rack, slip them inside his coat and walk through the checkstand without paying for the records. Childers stopped him and ordered the brothers to remove the records from their coats, which they did. The officer then asked defendants to step back past the checkstands into the main part of the store. After the arrests were made and a police car was called Charles offered to pay for the records. He then attempted to escape, but he was forcibly restrained by two other store employees.