People v. Gibbs

[178]

WEYAND, J.,

pro tem.

The defendant was convicted in the superior court of the county of Lassen of the crime of grand larceny. He appeals from the judgment of conviction. The only alleged error of the trial court, claimed by the appellant, is that the conviction was had on the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice, one Paul Hendron.

The question thus presented is properly severable into two parts: First, Was the witness, Paul Hendron, an accomplice

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And, second, If he were an accomplice in the commission of the crime, was there at the trial other evidence in corroboration of Hendron’s testimony

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A conviction being had, we will not concern ourselves with a full recital of all the testimony. There are some disputes in the testimony as to certain facts, but we will content ourselves with stating so much of the evidence as could be said to support the judgment of conviction, and we will not concern ourselves with the disputed matters,

The testimony of witnesses, other than said Hendron, disclosed that the Susanville Country Club had a club-house some fourteen miles distant from Susanville, in Lassen County. On October 25, 1926, in the night-time, this clubhouse was entered by someone, and a number of blankets, comforters, sheets, and other like articles, a.number of electric light globes, together with a radio and fixtures, were stolen therefrom. No one saw the perpetrator. The theft was accomplished by breaking into the club-house. At the time the club-house was closed for the winter season. Tracks disclosed that an automobile had been parked on the “top of the hill” near the club-house. Some electric light globes had been dropped where a machine had been parked “on the top of the hill,” near the club-house, on a public road.

Many of the stolen blankets, comforters, and like articles were found some months later in the house of one Susie A. Sorahan, in the town of Susanville. They were in some old trunks in a back room.

Susie A. Sorahan was a cousin of defendant, and she ran a lodging-house in Susanville, at which various people lodged. The defendant had roomed at the Sorahan house at times, about the date of the theft and thereafter. The radio and fixtures were traced some months later into the