People v. Wheeler

[1058]

Opinion

DRAPER, P. J.

Convicted of escape from state prison without force or violence (Pen. Code, § 4530, subd. (b)), defendant appeals.

On August 2, 1973, defendant was a prisoner in California Medical Facility, serving terms under several convictions. That day, he was assigned to a work crew engaged in maintenance of the yard outside the prison proper. He left this assignment and entered an automobile. According to his testimony, he was driven to Palo Alto, where he spent some three days. He was given money (he says $18,000-$20,000) by an unidentified person. He traveled by bus to Reno, Nevada, and boarded a train to New York City, where he stayed in a hotel for a month and a half. He went to Chicago, staying in a hotel there “for a week or two.” Late in October, he went to Houston, Texas. He was arrested by F.B.I. agents in Houston July 3, 1975, after he had sought medical treatment for a gunshot wound. He had been employed there under the name Bradley Stuart Bruce, and had a social security card in that name. Appellant offered to prove that: at and before the time of his escape he had been suffering from regional enteritis or ileitis; the medical facility staff had not properly diagnosed his ailment; he had left the prison to seek proper treatment; he underwent surgery for his condition in Houston in October 1974, and again slightly more than a month later. This offer was rejected.

Appellant contends that the offered proof would have established a defense under the doctrine of necessity.

(People

v.

Lovercamp,

43 Cal.App.3d 823 [118 Cal.Rptr. 110, 69 A.L.R.3d 668] [hg. den.].)

That defense to a charged escape is available, however, only if all five conditions of

Lovercamp

are met

(id.,

at pp. 831-832). The fifth of these is that “[t]he prisoner immediately reports to the proper authorities when he has attained a position of safety from the immediate threat.” (P. 832.)