People v. King

LENNON, P. J.

The defendant in this case, having been convicted in the court below of the crime of felony embezzlement, prosecutes this appeal from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

Minus minor matters, the facts of the case upon which the prosecution relied for a conviction are substantially these:

The defendant at the time of the commisssion of the crime charged in the information was engaged in the real estate business in the city of Oakland, and had been employed by the complaining witness, Antonio Marciel, to negotiate the purchase of a piece of real property situate in the county of Sonoma. During the pendency of such negotiations and as an incident thereof, Marciel was desirous of applying the sum of seven hundred dolllars which he had in his possession to the satisfaction of a mortgage existing upon certain real property owned by him and situate in the county of Alameda. The defendant advised against this and persuaded Marciel to deposit said sum of seven hundred dolllars in a safe deposit box rented and controlled by the defendant. When negotiations for the sale of the property were abandoned, demand was made upon the defendant, so the complaining witness said, for the return of the seven hundred dollars so deposited. It was developed as a part of the people’s case, that when demand was made upon the defendant, he not only claimed that he had returned the money in question, but produced a receipt therefor purporting to have been signed by Marciel. Marciel admitted that the signature to the receipt was in his handwriting, but insisted, nevertheless, that he had not received from the defendant, or any one else, the money mentioned therein.

The defense of the defendant as against the specific crime charged in the information rested entirely upon the recitals of the receipt referrred to, and his testimony that he had returned the money in question upon the demand of Marciel.

But one point is presented for a reversal, and that involves the rulings of the trial court permitting the prosecution, over

[261]

the objection of the defendant, to introduce evidence of other wholly independent and disconnected criminal offenses alleged to have been committed by the defendant. In this behalf the record shows that Antonio King Davila, a witness for the people, was permitted to testify that, as his agent, the defendant, in the latter part of the year 1911, had misappropriated and embezzled a certain sum of money.