People v. Howard

HART, J.

The defendants were by information jointly charged and thereunder tried for the crime of grand larceny, and were convicted of the crime so charged. They and each of them appeal from the judgment of conviction and the order denying their motion for a new trial.

The defendants appeared for trial without an attorney, having previously, and at the time of their arraignment

[341]

upon the charge alleged against them in the information, refused to accept the offer of the court to appoint an attorney or attorneys to conduct their defense, preferring themselves to manage the trial of their case, which they did.

The ground upon which they base their claim to a reversal is that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict, and, after a careful reading of the evidence, we have been convinced that the point must be sustained as to three of the defendants.

The property alleged in the information to have been stolen by the defendants was a Willys-Knight touring car automobile, of the value of $1,780, and the property of Dr. J. H. Haile, of the city of Sacramento, in which place the alleged larceny is charged to have been committed.

It appears that on the night of the 16th of October, 1921, the car mentioned in the information was stolen and driven away from the garage of Dr. Haile, at 2319 N Street, in said city. The larceny was immediately, upon the discovery of the theft, reported to the Police Department. A few days later, the car, stripped of nearly every equipment of an automobile, except the engine, was found in a garage in the town of Florin, in the county of Sacramento.

It further appears that near the time at which the Haile car was stolen an automobile belonging to one A. W. Clifton had been stolen from his garage at Colonial Heights, near the city of Sacramento; and that Clifton had reported the theft to the police. Clifton, on discovering his loss, proceeded to look about the immediate neighborhood for some possible clue which might lead to a discovery of the whereabouts of the car, when he found on and picked up from the street, at a distance of about two hundred feet from his garage, a package of written documents, among which , were some tax receipts, the latter being for the payment of taxes on the premises at 3030 First Avenue, Sacramento, and in the name of “Carl Smedin.” All these papers Clifton turned over to the police. The matter of the investigation of the theft was assigned to Police Officer Dill, who immediately proceeded to the premises referred to in the tax receipts. Inquiring first at a near-by corner grocery as to the identity of the owner or