People v. Martinez

SHINN, P. J.

In a jury trial, Faustino Martinez was found guilty of an offense of second degree burglary and he appeals. Martinez represented himself at the trial. He applied for appointment of counsel on the appeal. After reading the record we denied the application for the reason that the appeal has no semblance of merit and appointment of counsel would serve no useful purpose. Martinez has filed an opening and a closing brief which present every conceivable argument for a reversal.

The conviction was based upon evidence of the following facts. On March 24, 1959, a burglary was committed in the house of a Mrs. Margaret Aguilar. The property stolen included a television set, a hi-fi set with four gold-tipped legs and some clothes belonging to her brother, Eaoul Morales. Morales testified that at about 2 p.m. he saw appellant walking toward his sister’s house. Upon returning to the scene about half an hour later Morales saw appellant and another man standing beside a black Pontiac parked in front of the house. He heard appellant ask: “What about the records?” The other man replied: “We’ll come back for them later.” Morales saw his sister’s hi-fi set in the trunk of the car; he recognized it by the gold-tipped legs. A few days later, Morales identified appellant in a police line-up. Prior to the line-up, Sergeant Van Dahlen had the first of three conversations with Martinez. At that time appellant denied his guilt of burglary.

[692]

When told that Morales had identified him, appellant admitted burglarizing the house and “fencing" the stolen articles for narcotics. After being held to answer at the preliminary, appellant told Van Dahlen that he committed the burglary with one Morones, using the latter’s black Pontiac ■automobile. Van Dahlen testified that all appellant’s statements were free and voluntary. Appellant took the stand and gave an account of his whereabouts on March 24th; he denied being in the vicinity of Mrs. Aguilar’s house and denied admitting his guilt to Sergeant Van Dahlen. On cross-examination he admitted having suffered two prior felony convictions, one of forgery and one of burglary.

Numerous points are advanced on the appeal. The first point requiring discussion is that the court lacked jurisdiction over the case for the reason that appellant was unlawfully arrested without a warrant. There is no basis for the contention. No evidence was received concerning the circumstances of the arrest and the People did not seek to introduce any evidence obtained by the arresting officers. Furthermore, even if the evidence had established an illegal arrest the court would not thereby have been deprived of jurisdiction over the proceedings.