People v. Rossi

THE COURT.

Appellant was charged in an information with the crime of buying or receiving stolen property, a felony under the provisions of section 496bb of the Penal Code. A trial by jury having been waived, appellant was tried by the court and found guilty as charged in the information. From that judgment of conviction and an order denying a new trial, appellant appeals, specifying as grounds therefor that there was no evidence of the receipt by appellant of the property described in the information, and that certain errors of law were committed during the course of the trial prejudicial to appellant.

Under section 496bb of the Penal Code the burden.is upon the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, first, that the property or some part thereof, consisting of silverware described in the information, had been stolen or obtained in a manner constituting theft or extortion. Second, that appellant bought or received, concealed, withheld or aided in the concealing or withholding of said property from the owner, and third, that appellant knew that said property had been stolen or obtained in a manner constituting theft or extortion.

The fact that the property was stolen was clearly established, it having been taken from the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wood in Sacramento on or about January 1, 1936, by one Remando and Woodford. To prove the receipt of the property by Rossi the prosecution called C. N. La Due, a police officer of the city of Sacramento, who testified he and Officer Thomas, also of the Sacramento police department, went to the residence of Rossi, and there in a woodshed in the rear of the premises dug up three bundles of silverware buried in the ground beneath the floor of the shed,

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and that the silverware in question was among those thus found.

After the articles had been recovered and after Eossi had been arrested and taken to the police station, in the presence of Captain McAllister, Sergeant La Due and Officer Thomas, Eossi was told that the silverware had been found buried in his woodshed, and he said, “Did you find that; how much did you find?” and when the officers charged him with not telling them of that buried silverware, he then replied: “Well, you can’t blame me for trying to save it,— ... I needed $100.00.” When asked why he buried it, he denied that he buried it, but said he knew Bert Lathrop buried some of it. Upon the stand the witness denied parts of this statement and said he was joking when he told the officers about needing the $100. Whether or not he was then speaking the truth was a matter for the trial court to determine.