People v. Crawford

VAN DYKE, P. J.

Clyde J. Crawford and Wilbur Dell Crawford each appeals from the judgment of conviction of grand theft and from the order denying motion for new trial. The evidence stated in the light favorable to the prosecution may be summarized as follows: On January 23, 1952 certain automobile dealers in Modesto had on their lot a new Oldsmobile coupé. It disappeared from the lot some time between 6:30 and 8 o’clock p.m., at which time the Modesto Police Department was notified that the ear was missing. About one hour later two patrol officers who were cruising in the city observed an Oldsmobile answering the description of the missing car. Two men were in it. The officers followed the car some distance to a point where it stopped at a traffic-lighted intersection. The intersection light was red. The officers stopped behind the Oldsmobile, turned on their own colored lights and one of them approached the driver’s side of the Oldsmobile, whereupon that car started quickly and went through the intersection at high speed and against the red light. The officer called for it to stop and when it did not he fired three shots at it as it sped away. The officers then pursued the fleeing vehicle at speeds up to 90 miles an hour until, in attempting to make a turn, the car ran into a ditch, hit a tree and stopped. Thereupon the two occupants jumped out and ran and only stopped when the officers, with their guns out, commanded them to come back. These two

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men were the appellants herein. It was shown that no permission had been given them or anyone to take the automobile and that between 8:30 and 9 o ’clock that same day the appellants had driven the car into a service station in Delhi where they purchased 16 gallons of gas for which appellant Clyde Crawford, giving his name as Jimmie Walker, left a wrist watch. At the trial Clyde Crawford did not take the stand, but his brother Wilbur did. Wilbur testified that while hitchhiking from San Francisco to Fresno he had found the automobile unattended, and with the motor running, on the highway about 6 miles north of Modesto; that he had driven the car down to Keyes where he met his brother Clyde whom he told that a friend had let him have the car in order that he might break it in. He said he had no intent to steal the ear.

Appellants first urge that the evidence was insufficient to support verdicts of guilty of grand theft. They argue that mere possesson of stolen property is not sufficient to show the necessary criminal intent for a conviction of theft and that the evidence of the People, taken at full value, only shows the car was missing from the owner’s place of business, that it was not taken with the owner’s consent, and that appellants were observed in possession of it. It is apparent that the foregoing is far from a complete statement of the evidence and the permissible inferences to be drawn therefrom. The jury did not have to believe Wilbur Crawford’s story, but could have inferred that the car was taken from the owner’s lot by the appellants, that the quantity of gasoline purchased indicated an intent not to return the car to its owner but to use it for a considerable time and perhaps to drive a great distance. The jury did not need to adopt the suggested explanation of. the appellants’ reluctance to be arrested as having been generated by their fear of being fired on and on the contrary could have well concluded that their acts in fleeing across the intersection against the red light when they were commanded by the officers to stop and their behavior thereafter were solely referable to guilt. There was evidence that both were acting in concert in that the driver of the car sped it away when he heard the command of the officers to stop; that before that the one not driving had been watching the officers’ car as it followed them; and that he joined the driver in flight when the car was disabled. From all the foregoing the jury permissibly inferred felonious taking with intent to steal.