People v. Carr

BURKE, P. J.

Defendant was acquitted by a jury of the charge of violating section 487, subdivision 3, of the Penal Code, grand theft auto, and convicted of violation of section 10851 of the Vehicle Code, driving or taking a vehicle, without consent of the owner, a felony.

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Probation was denied and defendant was sentenced to the California Institution for Women for the term prescribed by law. Defendant appeals from the judgment.

Defendant rented a Cadillac car from a car rental agency at International Airport for one day; the rental was extended for two additional days by the agency at defendant’s request. She failed to return the auto to the agency. One month later defendant was involved in a traffic collision with the rented car which had been reported stolen. The traffic officer, noting that the car was listed on the “hot sheet,” arrested defendant.

There is no issue of sufficiency of evidence to support the

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judgment. Defendant on several previous occasions had rented cars, kept them long after their return date, abandoned them, returned them to the renters without notice, and in one instance pleaded guilty to violation of section 499b of the Penal Code, the misdemeanor joy-ride statute. In the instant case defendant contended at trial that she had rented the ear for a month. The agency’s records, however, proved the rental to have been for one day, January 28, 1963, and extended by request from that day to February 1, 1963. On February 15, 1963, the ear was reported as stolen and was recovered the day of the accident, February 28, 1963, the day defendant claimed it was to have been returned. Defendant did not pay for such extended use and the jury’s factual determination upon substantial evidence, in the absence of error, is conclusive on appeal.

Defendant, however, claims prejudice and error in the proceedings otherwise, as set forth in her letter attached in the clerk’s transcript, pages 17 through 22, in which, generally, she charges (1) that she requested several witnesses but was allowed none, (2) that a list of witnesses was ignored by counsel, (3) that unusual prejudice was shown, (4) that this is a criminal prosecution for a civil debt, (5) that the ear was reported stolen before the proper time had elapsed (referring to the five-day period provided for in Vehicle Code section 10855),