People v. Cox

THE COURT.

As we understand this case, from an inspection of the record and the briefs, the facts are substantially' these: The defendant was charged with the crime of grand larceny. The alleged subject matter of the larceny was a horse, charged in the information to have been stolen in the city and county of San Francisco, and driven through San Mateo and other counties into the county of Santa Cruz. The defendant was found in the latter county in the possession of the horse. He there sold the horse under the name of J. Geary; he requested that the check for the payment of the horse be "made out in that name, gave a receipt in that name, and when he cashed the check he indorsed the name of J. Geary thereon. When arrested he was asked by the party making the arrest if his name was J. Geary, and he said it

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was. It is an admitted fact in the case that the true name of the defendant is Merton Cox. There" is some evidence in the record as to his conduct and his statements on the night that he arrived in San Jose, and on another night when he arrived at Rockaway Beach in San Mateo County, and that when asked whence he had come and where he was going he said he had been traveling over the greater part of the state for the greater part of six months; that he had had the horse shod in Oakland, that he had come down by the coast route in a certain number of hours. When he was in jail the party to whom he had sold the horse visited him, and asked him to return the one hundred dollars which he paid defendant for the horse, and the defendant'then said, “Well, you are entitled to the money, but I won’t give you a written order for the money.” The defendant claimed that he bought the horse from a man by the name of John 0 ’Brien, in San Francisco; that he had known O’Brien since 1902; that O’Brien had worked for him at odd times since 1902, but that he did not know where he lived in San Francisco. Foreign subpoenas were issued in the case at the request of the defendant for O’Brien and several other witnesses. The return upon the foreign subpoenas showed that none of the witnesses, and'particularly John O’Brien, the person from whom the defendant claimed to have bought the horse, could be found, and during the course of the trial, counsel for the defendant offered these subpoenas and the return thereof in evidence. Counsel for the defendant claims that there is no evidence showing that he committed the larceny or participated therein save and except the recent possession of the stolen property.