People v. Anderson

HOUSER, J.

Defendant was convicted of the crime of robbery. He appeals from the ensuing judgment, as well as from an order by which his motion for a new trial was denied.

The only issue presented on the trial of the action related exclusively to the identification of defendant as the man who committed the robbery. In that connection, on direct examination as a witness, although the robber was masked, a Japanese who was robbed in his place of business positively identified defendant as the robber, and stated that a part of the sum of money of which he was robbed was contained in a wallet, and that the total sum amounted to about $51. His testimony was fully corroborated by another Japanese who was present at the time the robbery was committed. In addition thereto, a third witness, who was apparently unwilling to give testimony, and whose memory of events appeared somewhat defective, admitted that, although on the day when the trial of the action occurred she could not well recall the facts, at the time when she gave former testimony on the preliminary examination of defendant she “must have” testified that on the night when the robbery occurred defendant had a “gun” in his possession and stated to the witness that he had robbed "a chop suey joint, . . . between fifty and fifty-one dollars, and he was laughing about it, the way he had tricked the Japanese people. ... He had a wallet, too, and it was a Japanese name.”

The weight of the evidence and the credit which was to be given to the testimony of the several witnesses was addressed solely to the consideration of the jury, and its

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conclusion thereon is final. In such circumstances, and in view of the evidence in substance hereinbefore stated, the contention of appellant that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict cannot be sustained.

Appellant also specifies prejudicial error occurring on the trial of the action in that the trial judge usurped the function of the jury by using language in which the guilt of defendant was assumed. The alleged misconduct of the judge of the trial court in that particular arose from the following situation: At a time when a Japanese witness was being cross-examined by the attorney who represented defendant in the action, he was asked by such attorney the following question: