People v. Ong Git

COOPER, P. J.

The defendant prosecutes this appeal from the judgment finding him guilty of grand larceny and sentencing him to a term of four years in the state prison.

His claim that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict must be sustained.

The evidence shows that about 10 o’clock on the night of February 15, 1910, at Waverly place in the city and county of San Francisco, someone grabbed from the head of Lee Gin, a Chinese woman, three ornaments which she then had in her hair, of the value of about $80. The thief immediately ran off with the ornaments. She did not pretend to identify the defendant, did not see his face, but said that the size, dress and general appearance of the thief were about the same as defendant; that the thief was quite tall. At the time the crime was committed Gin Shee, the sister in law of the woman who was robbed, was with her. She did not see the thief’s face, and could not identify defendant as the thief. She

[279]

testified that the person who grabbed the ornaments had on dark clothes and a dark hat, but she could not say how they compared with the clothes of defendant; that) the figure of the thief was about medium. The witness Dolan testified that he was on Dupont street at the time, and hearing someone scream he looked and saw a Chinaman turn the corner from Sacramento street into Dupont street, run across Dupont street, turning down Commercial street, where he disappeared from the sight of the witness; that he could not identify the defendant as the man he saw running for the reason that the man was dressed and looked like the ordinary Chinaman; that some two or three minutes after seeing the Chinaman run into Commercial street he saw a police officer, and informed such officer that the Chinaman had run down Commercial street. Larkin, the police officer, testified that Dolan informed him of seeing the Chinaman run, and after some two or three minutes he went down Commercial street, about 10 or half-past 10 o’clock P. M., saw a Chinaman standing over an iron trapdoor in front of No. 710 Commercial street, and that he then and there went up to the Chinaman and arrested him, the same being the defendant. The witness Brady, a police officer, testified that he went on duty near midnight of the evening of the robbery; that a little after midnight he examined the trapdoor at 710 Commercial street, and found the stolen ornaments under the door.