People v. Moore

Opinion

KINGSLEY, J.

Defendant was charged with one count of robbery and with three counts of kidnaping for the purpose of robbery. After a trial by jury, he was found guilty on all four counts. A motion for a new trial was denied but the trial court reduced the three kidnaping counts to simple

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kidnaping. Probation was denied and he was sentenced to state prison ón all four counts, the sentences to run concurrently.

1

He has appealed from the judgment and from the order denying his motion for a new trial. We affirm the judgment on count I (robbery), reverse it on counts II, III and IV (kidnaping), and dismiss the appeal from the nonappealable order denying a new trial.

Defendant and a companion entered a business establishment in La Verne, California, at about 4 p.m. The place was attended by two young girls, Garene Hall and Mary Ellen Zavala. Defendant produced a gun and said: “This is a stick-up. Give me the money.” The girls thought him joking and did not respond. Defendant fired a shot into the wall to demonstrate his seriousness. At about this juncture, Garene’s mother, Mrs. Jackie Hall, entered. She recognized that an actual holdup was in progress and, at defendant’s insistence, removed money from the cash register and from a money bag and gave it to defendant. Defendant asked if there was any more money and Garene told him there was another cash register in a back room. Defendant herded the three persons into that room, secured the additional money and left, locking the door and warning the three not to attempt to leave for 10 minutes. Unknown to him, there was another, unlocked door to the back room and the victims escaped, went next door and summoned the police.

I

The robbery count names Mrs. Hall as the victim of the robbery. Defendant argues that, since the money taken was the property of the business establishment, and Mrs. Hall was not an employee but merely a visitor, the evidence does not support the robbery charged.

We need not, in this case, consider whether or not an error in designating the victim of a robbery affects a conviction, because we conclude that, under long established rules, the count accurately charged the offense committed.