People v. Prather

RICHARDS, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction of appellant, who was charged with the crime of forgery, and from an order den,;- ing his motion for a new trial.

The first contention of appellant is that the court erred in permitting the prosecuting witness Thompson to testify to a certain conversation with a man named Rock on the streets of Oakland out of the hearing of Die defendant and before he had appeared upon the scene: the second contention of the appellant is that the court erred in admitting the evidence of said Thompson as to certain conversations and conduct after he had joined Rock and Thompson, but before the transactions out of which this case arose, as to the laying of certain illegal bets on a horse-race, in the course of which Thompson lost all of his ready money. The appellant contends that the evidence of this episode amounted to an attempt to prove another, separate and distinct offense from that with which the appellant is charged herein, to

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his prejudice in the present case. These two contentions of the appellant may be considered together since they each involve a review of the evidence in the case for the purpose of determining what the relationship, intent, and conduct of the defendant and of the absent Mr. Bock were in respect to Thompson, and to the particular offense of which the defendant stands convicted.

A careful perusal of the record convinces us that the following facts were fairly deducible by the jury from the evidence in the case:

Prather and Bock had known each other for some time prior to the occurrence out of which the arrest of the former arose. They had been playing the races together, and were well enough acquainted and acting sufficiently in concert for Prather to regard and speak of Bock as his “friend” oi “partner.” Bock was already known to the police of San Francisco as a suspected buncoman whose presence in that city was not desired. The pair were together in Oakland on the afternoon of March 24, 1913; and in view of their conduct in the affair of Thompson, were on the look-out for a victim to fleece. Bock accosted Thompson, whom he found to be a stranger in town, and at once became chummy and offered to show him the “fifty million dollar hotel.” They walked up the street together with Prather evidently hovering near. The talk between Bock and Thompson before Prather joined them, the admission of which was objected to by the defense, does not seem to have been harmful to any material degree. It simply led up to the opportune moment for introducing the defendant into the scene. The way in which Prather was presented to Thompson, as a man whom Bock had known in Denver, was in itself a false and fraudulent pretense, shedding a strong light on the criminal purpose with which the pair were attaching themselves to Thompson. They presently began to discuss the subject of betting on the races, and induced Thompson to join them in laying a small wager. This was an easy and not unusual method of finding out what money Thompson had. The first play was successful, and naturally led to another and larger venture, involving all the money which Thompson had upon his person; and this, of course, he lost. The defendant objected to the admission of the evidence of this