People v. Hart

[231]

YORK, P. J.

Appellants were charged in an information containing three counts with violations of subdivisions 3, 4 and 6 of section 337a of the Penal Code, in that they received, recorded and accepted bets on horseraces outside the enclosure of a racetrack. Trial was had without a jury and upon stipulation the transcript of the testimony taken at the preliminary hearing was considered by the trial judge, who found appellants guilty as charged. Motion for new trial having been denied, appellants were sentenced to the county jail for a term of six months on each count, such sentences to run concurrently. This appeal is prosecuted “from the order of judgment and sentence,” upon the grounds: (1) Insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the judgment of conviction; (2) that the judgment is contrary to the law and the evidence; (3) that the court erred in its decisions on questions of law arising during the course of the trial; (4) that the deputy district attorney prejudicially misconducted himself during the trial.

Appellants urge that the evidence is wholly insufficient to establish the

corpus delicti

of the offenses charged in the information.

As is usual in cases of this character, the only evidence adduced at the trial was the testimony of the arresting officers. Police officer Betterton testified that on January 15, 1941, while walking near the entrance to the Dome Bowling Alley in the city of Santa Monica, he “observed Jack Hart making a notation, consulting a scratch sheet and accepting the sum of fifty cents in money from a party he was talking to, ’ ’ and, although he heard none of the conversation, he “took Jack Hart into custody and took his note book and the scratch sheet” from him. Hart was searched and from his pockets were taken two slips of paper containing names of horses, a National Scratch Sheet dated January 15, as well as seven sheets of paper which appeared to have been torn from the notebook and which contained the numbers of horses and notations of the amounts bet after each number. In addition, there was taken from appellant Hart’s possession the Los Angeles edition of the official race entries, commonly known as a bootleg scratch sheet. The police officer testified he saw appellant Hart make the notation “344% XX Otto” which he interpreted to mean as follows: “344 is a horse by the name of ‘Chaldese’ running in the sixth race at Santa Anita