People v. Miller

DESMOND, P. J.

Defendant,' in a jury-waived trial, was found guilty upon two counts charging her with committing an assault with caustic chemicals, as defined in section 244, Penal Code, upon two soldiers who called at her house at about 2 o’clock a. m. on December 13, 1944. She appeals from both judgments on the ground of insufficiency of the evidence to support the convictions. We shall, therefore, summarize the evidence which, in our opinion, amply supports the convictions.

It appears without dispute that the two soldiers, under the influence of liquor, traveled in a taxicab from downtown

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Los Angeles to the home of the defendant in the southerly-part of the city. They went onto the porch of the appellant’s house, rang the doorbell and knocked upon the door. After a few minutes a woman’s voice, coming from the inside of the house, said: “Go away or I will shoot you. ...” One of the soldiers, in his testimony, identified the voice as belonging to the defendant and testified that instead of going away they continued to knock upon the door for several minutes, rang the bell, but denied having kicked the door. They stated that they turned the knob of the door but did not try to force it open. The taxi-driver testified that he saw the soldiers enter the porch and heard them knock vigorously, one of them saying, “in a pleading, persuading tone of voice, ‘That is all right, Honey, we have got lots of money, and you can take both of us. Come on, Baby, let us in. We were here and drank beer before.’ ”

According to the appellant, after her door bell rang she looked out and saw the soldiers staggering around and recognized them as two men who had been there three days previously. She turned on the porch light and asked what they wanted and they said they wanted to see “Maxie” or “Maisie.” She informed them that no one by that name lived there, told them to go away, and then turned off the light. The soldiers, however, remained upon the porch, ringing the doorbell, pounding upon the door and, finally, according to appellant, one of them said: “ ‘Let’s go in; she is in there by herself, and we have been here too long, and nobody has seen us and nobody will know we are going in. ’ ” One of the soldiers, according to appellant, then said: “ ‘If you shoot us, you will hang before sun up.’ ” She further testified that when one of the soldiers kicked the lock, she went into the bathroom where she found a wash basin containing water, soap powder and Purex, as well as a can containing lye. She testified: “I happened to think about this lye, and I took it out and the little can of lye was about three-fourths full and I only put about one-fourth in the pan of water, and then I went to the door.” By this time, appellant continued, the noise had stopped and she thought the soldiers had gone, but when she turned on the porch lights someone exclaimed, “ ‘She is there, and we are going to get in’ ”; that she immediately opened the door, hurled the solution at the soldiers, quickly closed the door and turned off the light. After the soldiers ran out to the street calling “Taxi,” appellant returned to bed.