People v. Walker

MUSSELL, J.

Henry Pilgrim, Guy Albright and appellant Paul Eugene Walker were accused of the crime of burglary (Pen. Code, § 459) in an information containing two counts. In count one they were charged with having entered “Ed’s Lawnmower and Gun Shop” in Fresno with intent to commit theft therein and in the second count with having entered the L. H. Butcher Company building in said city with like intent. Appellant was also charged with two prior felony convictions. He admitted these prior convictions and he and Albright were tried by a jury which returned a verdict finding them both guilty of burglary in the second degree as charged in counts one and two of the information. Appellant was sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison for the term prescribed by law and appeals from the judgment of conviction.

On April 7, 1957, at about 10:30 p.m., William Brunson, operator of “Ed’s Lawnmower and Gun Shop” in Fresno was called to his store and noticed that the front door had been broken into. There was glass on the floor and 27 guns had been stolen from the gun rack. Three BB guns taken had tags attached to them and one of the rifles taken had been received in a trade.

The branch manager of L. H. Butcher Company was in his establishment in Fresno on Sunday, April 7, 1957, and when he left, he locked the door to the building. When he returned later in the day he found that a window had been smashed, the door had been opened, and two office machines, a typewriter, including the cover, a calculator and an adding machine had been stolen from the building.

At about 10 p.m. on April 7, 1957, a Mr. Kirkman and his wife were driving past the gun shop when they saw a 1949 black Mercury automobile, license Number FAE 470, parked in front of the shop. Mr. Kirkman testified that “it looked like someone was sitting in the car”; that he observed two men carrying guns from the shop to the ear and that they drove away; that he followed the black car, stopped a police car two blocks away, and “yelled the circumstances to the officers.”

Mr. Hillman, who resided near the shop, testified that he heard a crash, saw two men inside the shop, and saw one man run out of it with an arm load of guns; that the man put the

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