People v. Horton

MONROE, J. pro tem.,

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Defendant-appellant appeals from a conviction for felonious assault, as defined by Penal Code, section 245, prohibiting an assault “by any means of force likely to produce great bodily injury." The appellant assigns as his sole claim of error that his conviction was based upon the testimony of an accomplice, one Bernard James Walker, and that such testimony was not corroborated, as required by Penal Code, section 1111. That section provides:

“A conviction can not be had upon the testimony of an accomplice unless it be corroborated by such other evidence as shall tend to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense; and the corroboration is not sufficient if it merely shows the commission of the offense or the circumstances thereof. An accomplice is hereby defined as one who is liable to prosecution for the identical offense charged against the defendant on trial in the cause in which the testimony of the accomplice is given.”

The facts, as revealed by the record, furnish a complete answer to the appellant’s contentions. On July 4, 1961, there was a celebration at Fairmount Park in Riverside, California. During the evening of that day, a group of Negroes, estimated at twenty, successively attacked individual white boys, inflicting rather grave injuries upon them. Two prosecutions were commenced and the eases were tried together. The appellant and others were defendants in both cases.

The first case involved an attack upon a serviceman, Billy Clyde Ray, who was at the park with a girl friend whom he subsequently married. Ray was set upon by the gang, was knocked to the ground, kicked in the face and was severely injured. The evidence revealed that prior to the attack upon Ray, Bernard James Walker, a Negro, approached Ray and struck him. Walker, in his testimony, gave as his excuse that somebody had been throwing lighted firecrackers and he thought it was Ray. In any event, Walker and Ray exchanged blows. Ray’s girl friend spoke to him and he turned around and walked away. Walker walked away in the other direction. This is in accord with Walker’s testimony,

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the testimony of the prosecution witnesses, and the testimony of Lawrence Davidson, one of the defendants. There is no evidence to the contrary with reference to Walker’s connection.