People v. Costello

NOURSE, J.

The defendant Costello was tried jointly with Avelino and Raleigh before a jury upon an information charging them with robbery. The jury returned separate verdicts finding each of the defendants guilty of robbery in the first degree, the crime having been committed while each of the defendants was armed with a deadly weapon. From the judgments following these verdicts and from the orders denying each of the defendants a new trial they have appealed separately, but by stipulation the three appeals have been presented upon a single typewritten record.

At about 10 o’clock P. M. of June 19, 1926, the three defendants entered the laundry of Yee Lung, located at

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No. 9 Langton Street, San Francisco, upon the pretense that one of them had left clothes with the complaining witness to be laundered. As the witness opened the door the defendant Costello pointed a revolver at him and he and one of the other defendants took the witness upstairs, made a search of the premises, and took from a trunk belonging to the witness the sum of $432. They then bound the witness and the three defendants left the premises. On the night of June 25, 1926, a number of police officers entered a rooming-house conducted by the mother of defendant Raleigh in search of parties suspected of having been guilty of an attempt to commit murder in the county of San Mateo. The officers there encountered the three defendants, one of whom endeavored to make his escape through a window while the other two concealed themselves under a bed. The three defendants were handcuffed and questioned by the officers for a period running from about midnight of the night of the arrest until 5 o’clock of the following morning. During the course of the examination one of the officers discovered a lunch basket containing five revolvers, which were shown to the defendants after they had stated that no arms were concealed in the house. About this time the defendant Costello expressed his willingness to make a full confession of the crimes in which he had participated. He was taken into another room and made a full confession to the officers implicating himself and the other two defendants in a series of robberies committed within a period of about ten days immediately preceding.. Costello was then taken back to the other defendants, who were told of the confession made by Costello and each admitted the truth of the statements made by him. Bach defendant was then asked to point out the revolver which he had used in the several robberies detailed in this confession and each did so while a newspaper photographer took pictures of them in the act. The defendants were then taken to the Hall of Justice where they were assembled at about 8 o’clock A. M. of June 26th in the office of the police commissioners in the presence of some fifteen or twenty police officers and newspaper men. Costello was then asked if he desired to make a confession and stated that he would do so if it was satisfactory to his co-defendants. They both nodded their assent and Costello proceeded to give in detail a description