People v. Williams

California Court of Appeal Jul 27, 1929 No. Docket No. 1547.Published

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Holding. The court held that a weapon does not lose its character as a blackjack or slungshot simply because it is dismembered, provided the parts can be easily assembled to be effective. Furthermore, an erroneous jury instruction that favored the defendant rather than the prosecution is not grounds for reversal.

Issues

Whether the evidence was sufficient to support a conviction for possession of a blackjack or slungshot when the components were found disassembled.
Whether the trial court's jury instructions regarding the definition of a blackjack or slungshot constituted reversible error.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“The rule is well settled that a deadly weapon does not cease to be such by becoming temporarily inefficient, nor is its essential character changed by dismemberment if the parts may be easily assembled so as to be effective”

“Assuming this to he true, the instruction was not prejudicial to the defendant, but rather to the prosecution, and the error is not a ground for reversal”

THE COURT.

The defendant was charged in an information filed in the Superior Court in and for the County of Fresno with a felony, to wit, the possession of a blackjack or slungshot. He was convicted, and from the judgment and an order denying his motion for a new trial has appealed.

The information was based on section 1 of chapter 323 of the Statutes of California (Stats. 1925, p. 542). The section provides that “Every person who . . . possesses any instrument or weapon commonly known as a blackjack, slungshot . . . shall be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof -shall be punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than one year nor more than five years. ...” As grounds for the appeal it is contended that the evidence of the character of the instrument found in defendant’s possession was insufficient to justify the finding of the jury that the same was a blackjack or slung-shot, or to warrant a verdict of guilty; that the verdict was contrary to law in that there was no evidence upon which the jury could find that the defendant had possession of either a blackjack or slungshot as the same were

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defined in the court’s instructions to the jury, and that the jury was misdirected as to matters of law.

On February 10, 1929, the defendant with others was arrested in a resort near Firebaugh, in Fresno County. There was found in his pocket a flat steel wrench about six inches in length and .weighing approximately five ounces. In the same pocket was found a looped leather strap about twelve inches long so contrived by means of wire and leather thongs as to allow the wrench to be placed in a pocket at one end, while the end forming the loop could be slipped over the wrist of the user and held in the hand. While the two were not combined at the time they were found, an inspection shows beyond a reasonable. doubt that they were designed to be, and when joined were capable of being, used as an offensive weapon of deadly character.

Webster’s International Dictionary defines a blackjack as a small leather-covered club or billy, weighted at the end, and having an elastic shaft; and a slungshot as a small mass of metal or stone fixed on a flexible handle, strap or the like, used as a weapon.

People v. Williams

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THE COURT.

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