People v. Bausell

JENNINGS, J.

Defendant was charged by information with having committed the offense of receiving stolen property. On arraignment he entered a plea of not guilty, waived a trial by jury, and was tried before the court, which found him guilty and pronounced judgment whereby he was sentenced to confinement in the state prison. He appeals from the judgment.

The sole contention which appellant here presents as ground for reversal of the judgment is that the trial court committed prejudicial error in admitting in evidence over his objection extrajudicial statements of appellant in the absence of sufficient proof of the

corpus delicti.

Examination of the record discloses that evidence other than the inculpatory statements to whose admission appellant objected was produced during the trial and that thereby the following facts were developed: At approximately 4 P. M. of June 3, 1936, John Ortiz, who was an employee of the Famous Department Store in the city of Santa Ana, observed appellant walking along Bush Street in said city. Appellant was then accompanied by a red-haired woman and Ortiz remembered that he had seen these same persons in the Famous store on April 28, 1936. At the time Ortiz first caught sight of appellant the former was on the opposite side of Bush Street from the latter. Ortiz then walked across the street. Appellant turned, and on seeing Ortiz, said to his companion: “I will meet you at Harry’s house.” Appellant then crossed the street and walked ahead to the corner of the block. Ortiz followed appellant and when the latter had arrived at the corner of the intersection, Ortiz called to appellant to stop. Appellant, however, continued to walk ahead and in a short distance began to run. Ortiz followed him into a near-by vacant garage, where he caught up with him. After they had arrived in the garage appellant dropped three dresses which were wrapped in appellant’s coat that he was carrying. Ortiz ordered appellant to put on his coat, which he did,

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remarlring at the time, “You haven’t got a damn thing on me.” The three dresses were subsequently identified as being the property of the J. G. Penney store in Santa Ana which is located across the street from the Famous Department Store. A witness who was an employee in the ladies’ ready-to-wear department of the Penney store testified that she showed the three dresses which appellant had in his possession to three women at approximately 2:30 o’clock in the afternoon of June 3d, and that it was not discovered that they had been stolen until after appellant’s arrest. This witness also testified that she did not see appellant in the ladies’ ready-to-wear department of the Penney store, which occupied a comparatively small space at any time during the afternoon of June 3d after she had shown the dresses to the three women above mentioned, although she was present in the department at all times during the period that intervened between 2:30 o ’clock and the time she discovered the dresses had been stolen. It may be remarked that not all of the above-narrated facts were established at the time appellant’s inculpatory statements were admitted in evidence. The order of proof is, however, a matter entirely within the discretion of the trial court