People v. Oakleaf

CURTIS, J.

The defendants are charged jointly in the information with the commission of four robberies, all alleged to have been committed during the night of June 16th and the morning of June 17, 1923. The jury returned a verdict finding the defendant Oakleaf guilty on all four charges, and the defendant Piatt guilty of robbery as charged in count two of the information, and not guilty on the other three charges. The defendants have appealed separately from the judgment and from the orders denying their respective motions for a new trial. The defendant Piatt relies upon all the grounds advanced by defendant Oakleaf, and in addition thereto claims that the evidence is not sufficient to support the judgment against him.

We will consider the objections to the judgment which apply to both defendants, and afterward that which is relied

[316]

upon by the defendant Piatt only. The defendants, with a man by the name of Carlton, were arrested at about 2 o ’clock on the morning of June 17, 1923, after the commission of the four robberies charged in the information. The arrest was made by a police officer of the city of Los Angeles in a restaurant in said city on account of a disturbance which occurred in said restaurant, and in which said defendants participated. The arresting officer, in taking the three prisoners to the police station in his automobile, was attacked by them and severely beaten, after which they all made their escape. Thereafter, the defendants were arrested about 3 o’clock of the same morning at a garage where they were,, in the act of renting a ear from the owner of the garage. The defendants now claim that it was error to admit evidence of the arrest of the defendants on the first occasion, and their subsequent escape from the officer. It is defendants’ contention that by the admission of this testimony the court permitted evidence of other crimes to be submitted to the jury, to the prejudice of defendants’ rights. While it is universally recognized that a defendant in a criminal case cannot be tried for any other offense than that charged in the information, yet the rule is equally well recognized that evidence which is pertinent to, or tends to prove, the crime alleged, is admissible, even though it tends to prove the commission of other crimes. (8 Cal. Jur.

61; People