People v. Herrera

FOURT, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction of escape.

In an information filed in Santa Barbara County on Octo

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ber 14, 1965, defendant was charged with escape in violation of section 4532, subdivision (b), Penal Code, in that he did on September 19, 1965, “escape without force and violence from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Honor Farm while confined therein as a prisoner of the Sheriff of the County of Santa Barbara and having been convicted of a felony, to wit, Attempted Armed Bobbery, in violation of Section 664-211 of the Penal Code of the State of California.” Defendant, represented by appointed counsel, pleaded not guilty. The case was set for trial. On December 1, 1965, defendant, with counsel, sought to, and did, withdraw the plea of not guilty. Defendant was then arraigned and he pleaded guilty to the offense as charged in the information filed October 14, 1965. Defendant, on December 13, 1965, was sentenced to the state prison. Defendant filed a timely notice of appeal.

Appellant pleaded guilty and as a consequence there -are no judicially determined facts to recite. This court, however, pursuant to the Buies of Court has inspected the original file in this case and from the probation officer’s “Pre-Sentence Beport” (which report was designated by appellant to be included in the record on appeal) it can be ascertained that appellant was confined by the sheriff on the honor farm as a prisoner, having previously been convicted of a felony, namely, attempted armed robbery on or about June 3, 1965.

On Sunday, September 19, 1965, defendant apparently was present for roll call check at about 5 p.m. at the honor farm. Sometime after that check defendant escaped from the confines of the honor farm, for at about 9 p.m., as he expressed it, he was “trying to make his way back into the Honor Farm after a nocturnal excursion after bed cheek.” An officer observed defendant on the outside of the 7-foot high fence, intoxicated and entangled in the barbed wire strands. The officer assisted defendant in disentangling himself from the fence whereupon defendant immediately proceeded to run up the hill at the back of the honor farm. Defendant was ordered and directed to return to the main gate entrance and to come inside; however, he refused all admonitions by the officers. Defendant was extremely abusive in his language, directing foul obscenities at the officers and he intimated that the only way he was going to be taken down from the hill was by being shot or dragged. The officers proceeded to the outside of the fence, subdued defendant and dragged him down the hill. Defendant spit at the officers and had to be restrained. A liquor bottle was found near where defendant was standing on the hill. Defendant now asserts that he was too intoxicated