People v. Serpa

[329]

KNIGHT, J.

The appellant, William Serpa, was found guilty by a jury of the crime of second degree robbery, and he has appealed from the judgment of conviction and the order denying his motion for a new trial.

The robbery was committed in the Mission District, San Francisco, by two men. The identity of one of the men was not ascertained, and so far as the record shows he has never been apprehended. Appellant was taken into custody on the same day the crime was committed, and later charged with the commission thereof. As a defense to the charge he sought to prove an alibi, but it was rejected by the jury; and the first point urged by appellant in support of the appeal is that the evidence is insufficient to support the jury’s finding on the question of his guilt. There is no merit in the point.

Appellant was a shipyard employee; and at the timé of the robbery he was on parole from San Quentin Prison wherein he had served part of a sentence for second degree burglary. At the time of his arraignment he answered that his true name was William Serpa, but at the trial he testified that his true name was Herbert William Serpa. The victim of the robbery was Adolph M. Lapsic. Less than two months prior to the date on which he was robbed he had received an honorable discharge from the United States Marine Corps on account of a fractured spine sustained by him while filling an assignment as instructor of engineering at a training camp near San Diego; and it was mainly on his testimony that the conviction herein was obtained. While his testimony was conflicting on some points, it is beyond question legally sufficient to support the finding of the jury that appellant was one of the robbers.

Among the essential facts established thereby were the following: During the latter part of the month of December, 1943, Lapsic was living on Valencia Street, and a few days before Christmas, about 10:30 o’clock in the evening, he visited a so-called tavern located on Valencia Street between 16th and 17th Streets. Among those present were a number of sailors, and the appellant and a companion whose identity was not ascertained, but who was described as “a heavy set man.” During the evening Lapsic made the acquaintance of appellant and his companion, and at closing time a party consisting of appellant, his companion, Lapsic, and two or three of Lapsic’s friends, one of whom was a woman, left the tavern together and went to a nearby apartment house wherein liquors were sold. Upon arriving there, however, they found