People v. Johnson

SHINN, Acting P. J.

In a jury trial Leroy L. Johnson and Henry Ewing were convicted of three felonies each, Johnson of receiving stolen property and two offenses of forgery of a fictitious name, and Ewing of one offense of burglary and two offenses of forgery of a fictitious name. It was found by the verdicts that Johnson had been convicted of one previous felony, and Ewing of two, as charged in the information. Ewing alone appeals, claiming insufficiency of the evidence and error in the giving of an instruction.

A clothing manufacturing concern known as Capetillo Sportswear was burglarized on the night of April 8, 1947. The proprietors testified that they lost 600 sport shirts, a checkbook, a check writing machine, some nightgowns, negligees and remnants, all of which they valued at approximately $6,000. They described the collars and material of the shirts, also a light pink thread and a white thread that was used in the manufacture of ladies’ garments. They described also a sewing machine used for stitching which was not in good re

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pair and made an extremely loose stitch which was not difficult to identify. The cheeks in the checkbook were numbered serially and were printed with the name of Capetillo Sportswear. Pearl buttons were used on the shirts and also certain custom made shoulder pads, which came in a cardboard box on which appeared the name of the manufacturer. Only a few of the garments were recovered. Some of the stolen checks were filled out in typewriting and were cashed. . One typewriter was used on some of the checks, another one on the remainder. • Defendant Johnson admitted cashing two of the checks but denied the burglary. Ewing denied both "the burglary and the writing or cashing of the checks, but made admissions with reference to both the burglary and the forgeries which tended to connect him with the commission of both offenses.

There was, in our opinion, sufficient evidence to support the convictions of appellant. It will not be necessary to set it out at great length. Gabriela Capetillo, one of the proprietors, testified that about a week or week and a half prior to the burglary a colored man came into her place inquiring about work and that she talked with him for about three minutes and later saw him outside of a near-by beer hall; that while in the shop the man kept looking around the place, “sizing it up.” She was almost sure that appellant was this man. She identified threads which were found in appellant’s car as those which were used and which had been through her overlapping machine and which contained a loose stitch, and she also identified some of the shirts and some shoulder pads that had been recovered by the police, as hereinafter noted. She testified that certain checks that were recovered by the police from the defendants had been taken from her checkbook, and that the name signed thereto, Charles Rosser, was not that of anyone in her employ. Also, that the payees of the checks, Ben E. Brown and Vernon J. Carter, were not employees.