People v. Clark

CURTIS, J.

The defendant C. V. Clark was charged with the crime of escape, it being alleged that while he was in the lawful custody of William G. Kiester, deputy sheriff of the county of Los Angeles, and F. E. Wadsworth, superintendent of the detention camp, he escaped from said officers. The defendants Henry and Lewis M. Dischner are charged with assisting said Clark in making his escape from said officers. The two actions were consolidated and tried together, and the jury rendered a verdict, finding the defendants guilty as charged. It appears from the evidence that on February 8, 1924, the defendant Clark plead guilty to the crime of burglary, and on said day judgment was pronounced against him as follows: “Whereas, the said C. Vincent Clark having duly entered his plea of guilty in court of the crime of burglary, a felony, as charged in the information, which the court finds to be burglary in the second degree, it is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed that the said C. Vincent Clark be punished by imprisonment in the state’s prison of the state of California at San Quentin for the term prescribed by law. The defendant was then remanded to the custody of the sheriff of the county of Los Angeles, to be by him delivered into the custody of the warden of said state’s prison of the state of California at San Quentin. Done in open court this 8th day of February, 1924. February 8, 1924, execution of said sentence suspended, defendant to be remanded to the custody of the sheriff to work at the county road camp.” Thereafter and with the evident purpose of carrying into effect said judgment, Clark was taken, by the sheriff of said county, to one of the county road camps and placed in charge of Deputy Sheriff Kiester and Superintendent Wads-worth. On April the 8th, 1924, without the knowledge or consent of these officers, or either of them, or of any other person in authority, Clark left the road camp and on the evening of the same day was found in the city of San Pedro, riding in an automobile with the other two defendants. There was also evidence tending to show that the defendants, the Dischners, assisted Clark in leaving the road camp.

[522]

It is now contended by the appellants that the imprisonment of the appellant Clark and his detention by the authorities in charge of the road camp were illegal and unlawful, and therefore that it was no offense for him to peaceably leave the place of his confinement. This contention is based upon that portion of the judgment of the court, which, after providing that the sentence of imprisonment in the state's prison be suspended, purports to remand the defendant to the custody of the sheriff, to work at the county road camp. Undoubtedly the court had in mind, in pronouncing this judgment, subdivision