People v. Harrman

BARNARD, P. J.

The defendant was charged under each of two counts with grand theft through the taking of money from one Mary E. Ege. Having been found guilty on both counts, he appeals from the judgment.

It is first contended that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the judgment. The appellant, who was 39 years old, struck up an acquaintance with Mrs. Ege, a widow 65 years of age, in a hotel lobby in San Diego on December 8, 1939. Thereafter he spent each evening with her and shortly before Christmas he agreed to marr;-' her. On the second evening he told Mrs. Ege that his father had died in Illinois, leaving an estate of $75,000 which was to go to him and his sister and that the probating of the estate would be completed the following February. A few evenings later he told her that he and his father had been in the marble machine business; that there were 35 or 40 of these machines packed and ready for shipment in Springfield, Illinois; that his sister had put the machines under an attachment; that it would take $1,000 to get them released; that if he could get the machines to California he had arranged with a man in El Centro to put the machines in operation where they would make money rapidly ; and that he had $750 but did not know where to get the other $250. After they had talked the matter over on several evenings, and after the appellant told Sirs. Ege that he had telephoned to Springfield, Illinois, and that everything was arranged, she drew $250 from her bank account and handed it to him.

Shortly after Christmas the appellant showed Mrs. Ege a telegram which he claimed to have received from Springfield, Illinois, saying it would be necessary for him to come there to sign some papers. About the same time he told her that he was going to Springfield on a bus, that when he got there he wanted to get. a truck with which to bring the marble machines to California, and that when he got back here he could sell the truck and make money on it but that he had no money with which to buy the truck. Mrs. Ege cashed some bonds and gave him $450 to be used in bringing the marble machines to California. On January 3, 1940, the appellant took her with him to the bus station where he inquired as to the fare

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and available routes to Springfield, Illinois. On the evening of that day he gave her a receipt for the full $700 he had received from her, told her that he was going to Springfield and would be back in two weeks, and arranged with her to write to him at Springfield, General Delivery. He left the next morning and Mrs. Bge later addressed three letters to him at Springfield all of which were returned unclaimed. He was arrested in a hotel lobby in Long Beach on February 6, 1940, where the officers found him talking to an elderly lady. On the trip to San Diego the arresting officer asked him if he did not have a pretty good racket “taking these widows” and he replied that before he came to this state he had “heard there were lots of widows in California, that they asked for it”.