People v. Mayfield

SCHOTTKY, J.

Defendant, Jacob Mayfield, and two other, defendants were charged with burglary. Mayfield and one of the other defendants were found to be guilty of burglary in the second degree. Mayfield has appealed from the judgment which was entered.

It appears from the record that two officers of the Stockton Police Department passed defendant Mayfield’s ear going in the opposite direction while patrolling the streets in the early morning. Attracted by the loud muffler on Mayfield’s ear the officers made a U-turn and proceeded to follow it. Midway in an underpass they observed a large object being thrown from the car. Upon seeing this they stopped the defendant and recovered the object, which turned out to be a radio from a Dodge automobile. Defendant denied any knowledge of the radio.

The officers arrested defendant and the two other occupants of the car. Defendant, accompanied by an officer, drove and parked his car in front of the police station. Later that morning another officer found a screwdriver under the front seat of defendant’s car. Both the radio and the screwdriver were delivered to the Bureau of Criminal Identification and In

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vestigation in Sacramento. A criminologist testified at the trial that the markings on the radio were made by the screAVdriver in question.

On the same morning the defendant was apprehended Joe Steiner discovered and reported to the Stockton Police Department that his 1960 Dodge automobile, which was locked and parked in front of his home, had been broken into sometime during the night and that the car radio was missing. The radio found by the officers fit into the opening of Mr. Steiner’s automobile.

Appellant first contends that the evidence was insufficient to establish that the offense charged was committed in San Joaquin County and that therefore the Superior Court of San Joaquin County had no jurisdiction to try the case. This contention cannot be sustained.

As stated in

People

v.

Strickland,