People v. Perrin

[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *Page 840

Defendants, Donald and Michael Perrin, brothers, each appeals from a judgment entered upon a jury verdict finding him guilty of violation of Penal Code section 459, burglary second degree.

Defendants used a crowbar to pry open an outer locked door at the Iran Restaurant in Fresno at approximately 3 a.m. *Page 841 August 16, 1964. After entering, they pried open three inner locked doors to reach the bar area, where they forced a cash register and removed approximately $400. They proceeded to a storeroom-office and pried open a steel cabinet, taking approximately $1,200. They tried unsuccessfully to open a floor safe.

The Perrin brothers learned from Michael's wife, Susan, a waitress at the Iran Restaurant for two months prior to the burglary, that large sums of money were left on the premises in a locked liquor cabinet in the storeroom-office. Susan continued to work at the restaurant for approximately three weeks after the burglary was committed.

On September 19, 1964, Donald, Michael and Susan went to Phoenix, Arizona, and that night and on the 20th committed a number of burglaries. All three were taken into custody and booked at the Phoenix police station the following day. An officer by the name of Brady, who interrogated Donald and Michael, testified that at the outset he told each defendant he did not have to talk if he did not want to, that he had the right to have an attorney, and that anything he said could be used against him. Defendants made no request for an attorney, and talked willingly and freely.

Michael, interviewed first, talked about only the Phoenix burglaries, but Donald, who was next interviewed alone, voluntarily told Brady that he and Michael obtained $1,500 in the Iran Restaurant burglary in Fresno. Brady advised a police officer in Fresno, by telephone, that Donald Perrin had admitted a $1,500 burglary at the Iran Restaurant, and asked if such a burglary occurred. The Fresno officer confirmed the burglary, and requested a teletype report of the confessions. Armed with the information obtained from Fresno, Brady interviewed Michael and Donald together, and on this occasion Michael, as well as Donald, freely discussed the Iran burglary; both orally confessed and Michael also made a written confession. Brady testified that Michael signed the confession, but Michael, although admitting the handwriting in the body of the confession was his, denied that the signature, "Michael H. Perrin," at the end was his. He also disavowed his signature which appears in two other places in the body of the document, and his initials which appear in four places.