People v. Edwards

PLUMMER, J.

The defendant was convicted of the crime of attempt to commit larceny alleged to have occurred on the fourteenth day of July, 1926, in the county of Sacramento. This appeal is from the order denying his motion for a new trial and judgment of conviction entered in said cause. The appeal is based upon insufficiency of the evidence.

The record shows the following facts: That on or about the fourteenth day of July, 1926, one Dudley Belchamber, the owner of a certain Buick roadster automobile, parked the same on Ninth Street, between H and I, at about 8:30 o’clock A. M.; that he returned to the place where the automobile was parked shortly after 1 o’clock on the same day, and upon inspection of the machine, found that the switch lever had been tampered with, that there were marks thereon which, apparently, had been made by some instrument. ■ The marks were similar to' such as would be made by pliers. Mr. Belchamber, after finding his automobile in this condition, went to see his brother, who was in business a short distance from where the car was parked. About five minutes later, upon returning to the automobile, he found the defendant sitting therein behind the steering wheel. Mr. Bel

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chamber first saw the defendant when he was something like half a block away from the automobile. Upon the approach of Belchamber to within six or eight feet of the automobile, the defendant jumped from the car. Being asked what he was doing there, the defendant replied: “Oh, I am leaving a note for a friend to meet me somewhere,” and exhibited some kind of a note. Thereupon Mr. Belchamber said: “That does not satisfy me. Let’s hunt up an officer and see if you are telling the truth,” to which the defendant replied: “No, I have got to go to a ball game.” Mr. Belchamber then started in search of an officer and the defendant departed in an opposite direction. Shortly after this occurrence the defendant was arrested and the defendant, Mr. Belchamber, and the officer came back to the automobile, when it was discovered that the switch lever had been broken off. During all of this time the registration certificate of the car was strapped to the steering wheel where it was in plain sight. The defendant’s story was to the effect that on a previous evening he was out at Joyland and there met a man named Jack Fallon, whom he had known in' San Francisco ; that this Jack Fallon spoke to him about going to a ball game and told the defendant that he would meet him anywhere on Ninth Street between I and J; if he was not there, his car would be parked along there somewhere on Ninth Street; that Fallon said that his car was a Buiek roadster. The defendant was asked by Mr. Belchamber to accompany him to an officer to explain the matter and the defendant replied: That Mr. Belchamber had nothing on him; that he had no reason to suspect him of anything. The following questions and answers disclose the testimony of Belchamber upon this point: “Q. What excuse did he give at that time for not wanting an officer to arbitrate the matter? A. Well, he said that I—he told me I had nothing on him, that I had no reason to suspect him of anything like that; that was the only excuse he offered.” The defendant’s version on the witness-stand of why he did not explain the matter to an officer appears in the transcript as follows: “Now, the reason, then, as I understand it, that you didn’t want to have an officer arbitrate this matter, was because you wanted to go to a ball game; was that correct? A. Yes, sir; I didn’t see why I should have an officer. I was in a. hurry at the time. Q. And what was the reason you