People v. Plumlee

PEEK, J.

Following a trial before a jury which found him and his codefendant Plumlee guilty of two counts of armed robbery, the defendant Veith alone appeals.

The record discloses that appellant and Plumlee drove in the latter’s ear to a pharmacy in Fairfield for the purpose of committing robbery. While appellant remained in the car, Plumlee entered. He approached the clerk at the cash register, Mrs. Woodburn, drew a gun and told her it was a holdup, demanding that she empty the contents of the cash register into a brown bag which he handed to her. She complied, giving him about $45. Plumlee then ordered her to walk behind the prescription counter where Mr. Cain, the proprietor, was sitting. Plumlee told Cain he wanted hypnotics and specifically demanded amytal and seconal. While Plumlee was talking to Cain one Robert Martin drove up to the store and parked his car in front. As he alighted with a friend, he heard a ear’s horn sounded, and, glancing to his side, noticed that the noise

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was coming from a nearby automobile in which a man was sitting on the passenger’s side of the front seat. Martin and his friend then entered the store. At this time Cain was withdrawing hypnotics from a drawer behind the prescription counter. Plumlee ordered Mrs. Woodburn to wait on Martin but to say nothing. While serving Martin she gave him a sales slip on which she had written the words,1 ‘ Call the cops. ’ ’ This she handed to Martin, who then left the store. Plumlee ushered Cain and Mrs. Woodburn into a bathroom at the rear of the store and left with the money and hypnotics. Martin, who was waiting outside in his car, saw Plumlee leave the store and get into the automobile which Martin had noticed when he first approached the store. Martin made a note of the description and license number of the vehicle. On the following day appellant was arrested at his apartment in Napa. A search of the apartment produced a revolver similar to that used in the holdup, a coat similar to that worn by the robber and some small change in a glass jar. In a subsequent search of the apartment later on the same day investigating officers discovered two paper bags containing hypnotics concealed in the wall of the apartment. The hypnotics were divided equally between the two bags and appeared to be those taken in the holdup.

Plumlee was readily identified in a police lineup by both Mrs. Woodburn and Mr. Cain, but appellant was not identified at any time by anyone. Subsequently, however, and apparently against the advice of his attorney, he freely confessed to the police that he had been Plumlee’s accomplice. In his statement to the police he admitted having helped plan the holdup, having kept the car running while Plumlee was inside the drugstore and having sounded the horn to warn Plumlee of Martin’s approach. He further stated that he and Plumlee had divided the hypnotics equally, and that he had received five dollars of the stolen money. At the trial neither defendant nor Plumlee put on a defense.