People v. Carnes

WASTE, P. J.

The defendant was charged by information with the crime of grand larceny, it being alleged that on or about the twenty-fifth day of October, 1919, he took and drove away a Buick automobile belonging to Charles E. Johnson. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison. This appeal is from the judgment of conviction and the order denying defendant’s motion for a new trial.

The first contention made by the defendant is that the evidence is insufficient to warrant the conviction. Johnson, the complaining witness, left his automobile on a street in San Francisco and when he returned about fifteen minutes later it was gone. It was next located by the police in a private garage in San Bruno, San Mateo County, where it had been stored by the defendant. 'He had removed the air-pump and certain other parts, painted over the number of the motor, and removed the license plates. The parts that had been removed were found concealed under the sidewall?. It was proved also that the defendant attempted to procure old automobile license plates, failing in which he tried to borrow plates from a dealer. When arrested, he gave contradictory statements as to how he came into possession of the automobile, first claiming that his wife purchased it, thereafter maintaining that he bought

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it on the installment plan from a man by the name of Miller. He was unable to give the whereabouts of Miller and the latter was not produced at the trial, although a notary public testified that one Albert E. Miller, whom he personally knew, signed a bill of sale to the defendant and wife for a Buick automobile, in his presence.

The question as to the sufficiency of the evidence was one resting entirely with the jury for its determination. If the jury believed that the property was stolen, and, as was proved, it was found in the possession of the defendant shortly thereafter, and the defendant failed to account for its possession or to show that such possession was honestly obtained, to the satisfaction of the jury, that was a circumstance tending to show the defendant’s guilt. The burden rested upon the accused to explain his possession of the automobile, and that was a fact to be considered with other suspicious facts in the case.

(People