People v. Mullen

WORKS, J.

Defendant was convicted upon a charge of robbery. He appeals from the judgment of conviction and from an order of the trial court denying his motion for a new trial.

The evidence shows without dispute that the prosecuting witness, one Scobie, was walking along the sidewalk of a

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well-lighted street in the evening, when a man stepped from his concealment behind a palm near the sidewalk and asked Scobie for a match. He replied that he had none. Thereupon the lately concealed man leveled a “gun” at Scobie and commanded him to “stick them up.” The latter raised his hands above his head, but at the same time hurried toward an automobile which was standing 'by the curb twenty-five or thirty feet from where the hold-up occurred and in the direction toward which Scobie had been walking. The car was a Ford touring car. The motor of the vehicle was not running, but one of its doors was open, and a man, later identified by Scobie as the appellant, was seated at the steering-wheel. As Scobie approached the Ford the highwayman kept along with him and pressed the muzzle of the “gun” against him from 'behind. When Scobie came close to the car he said to appellant, “This is a hold-up,- would you help met” Appellant did not stir from his seat at the wheel, but answered, “Just keep up your hands; he won’t hurt you.” The robber then “went through” Scobie and allowed him to depart. Scobie’s assailant, being behind him a part of the time, was never identified by him and was never apprehended, so far as is known. After the victim of the robbery had gotten up the street some distance he turned about and saw the back of the Ford as the car was moving away from him along the street at an ordinary rate of speed. Who or how many were its occupants he could not tell. The robber was not in sight. Scobie reported his misadventure to the police. Later in the evening appellant was seen by police officers driving along another street in a Ford similar to the one above mentioned. At the time a man who later gave the names of Jolson and Logue was seated by his side. The officers halted the car and Logue was seen to toss some object into the tonneau of the vehicle. Appellant and Logue were then arrested and a “gun” was found in the tonneau. Appellant was charged with the robbery of Scobie.

Logue’s pistol and cartridges which had been taken from it were produced at the trial. Over the objection of appellant, without being identified as having had any connection with the hold-up of Scobie, and without it being shown that appellant knew that Logue possessed them, they were received in evidence and were exhibited to the jury.