People v. Gibson

MOORE, P. J.

Convicted by the court of attempted burglary of the second degree, appellant now seeks a reversal of the judgment on the ground of the insufficiency of the evidence. In the course of his argument he contends that the court erroneously admitted evidence of his admissions without proof of the corpus delicti.

About 12:30 o’clock of a January morning appellant crossed an alley extending easterly from San Fernando Road, the principal thoroughfare of Burbank. He carried a 14-foot wooden ladder which he placed horizontally by the fence in the rear of a department store. The darkness of the night was marred only by the street lights which were reflected into the alley. Having deposited his burden he stood erect, looked upward and walked along the edge of the building. Having reconnoitered the premises back to the point from which Police Officer Wooten had witnessed the prowler’s movements he then proceeded easterly for 120 feet when commanded to halt. As he stood in the beam of the officer’s flashlight he stated that he was considering whether he could use the ladder at his home and that he might steal it. Wooten then observing that this denizen of darkness wore brown

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cotton gloves, placed him under arrest and directed him to the police station where, having left the man in the custody of a fellow officer, he returned to the scene of his capture where he found a hurlap sack which contained various tools and burglars’ equipment, including an 8-pound sledge hammer, bits, braces, flashlights, gloves and 30 feet of quarter-inch white rope ladder of about 15 steps. In addition to the contents of the sack appellant had in his pockets two flashlights, wire cutters and a coil of small brown copper wire. Wooten took also from the man’s possession the keys to his automobile which was found two blocks east of the department store. It was registered in the name of appellant’s wife.

At the station appellant talked freely; said that he was fixing to commit a burglary. While he had not yet selected a building, “he said after I got on top I was going to see which was the most likely looking spot . . . He was coming to find the most likely looking spot with the rope to go down.” Appellant told the officers that he had been in and out of several penal institutions for attempted burglary. Regarding the crippled condition of his left hand he answered that when he had refused to halt on the command of a Sacramento officer he was cut down with a shotgun. He had possessed the rope ladder 10 days and had been picking up his tools here and there.