People v. Lee

THE COURT.

Appellants, with Lee Chong, James Loo You and a woman named Lonie Chan, were charged by a complaint filed in the Police Court of the City of Oakland with the offenses of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery and extortion. On December 10, 1931, after a preliminary examination the charges against said Lee Chong and James Loo You were dismissed, and appellants, with Lonie Chan, were held to answer to the superior court on the charge of robbery. The district attorney of Alameda County thereafter filed an information charging the four last mentioned with that crime, and later, over their objection, filed an amended information by which was added a second count charging them with the crime of attempt to commit robbery.

The four were duly tried, and Lonie Chan was acquitted on both counts. Appellants were acquitted on the first count and convicted of the crime of attempt to commit robbery of the second degree. Motions by the latter in arrest of

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judgment and for a new trial were denied, and the appeal is from the order denying a new trial and the judgment of conviction.

Appellants claim that it was error to permit the filing of the amended complaint for the reason that an attempt to commit robbery was not shown by the evidence taken at the preliminary examination, and that their motion to strike therefrom the second count mentioned should have been granted.

The complaining witness, a Chinese named Yip Wong Sun, with one Lin Hoy, conducted a barber-shop on Eighth Street in Oakland. They lived in rooms at the rear of the shop. This witness testified that on November 20, 1931, at about 10 P. M., at the suggestion of said James Loo You, he visited a beauty parlor conducted by Lonie Chan for the purpose of having his hair cut. He was invited into an inner room, and upon his entering she made an outcry. Appellants, with another Chinese, thereupon made their appearance. They seized the witness, threatened him with violence, and took from his person a sum of money and certain jewelry. Upon these acts was based the charge of robbery contained in the first count of the information. According to Lonie Chan, when the complaining witness entered her shop he made improper advances, which led her to call for assistance, and appellants responded. The complaining witness testified that he was held a prisoner in the Chan house until the morning of November 21, 1931, when he was taken by appellants to his own. shop for the purpose of getting from him the further sum of $600. During the night he was induced to sign a writing in Chinese which he copied from a draft prepared by appellants. This paper corroborated the story of Lonie Chan, and therein the witness agreed to pay the last-mentioned sum. The writing was found under a rug in the Chan house by police officers. The witness also testified that when the appellants brought him to his shop they were armed with pistols and threatened violence if the above sum should not be produced. Upon his arrival he ran through the shop and locked himself in a lavatory, at the same time calling to his partner for help and stating that appellants intended to rob him The partner testified that appellant George Chan said, “We came to get some money,” but after some con