People v. Hillard

CRAIG, Acting P. J.

The People appeal from an order granting the defendant’s motion for a new trial upon conviction in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County of petty theft, after conviction in the Municipal Court of the city of Los Angeles, upon a charge of having previously committed petty theft.

Respondent was alleged by information to have unlawfully taken away personal property of another on or about August 1, 1929, and by a second paragraph it was charged that on or about May 2, 1929, he was tried in the Municipal Court and there found guilty of petty theft, and thereafter sentenced and served a term of imprisonment. He pleaded guilty to the last-mentioned charge, and after a trial before the court, was convicted of the later offense. A motion for a new trial was interposed and was granted upon the theory that section 666 of the Penal Code, increasing the punishment upon the commission of a second offense, does not include petty theft among the prior offenses therein specified, and hence that the Superior Court had no jurisdiction of the instant case. It is argued that, being convicted of petty theft as defined by sections 486 and 488, inclusive, of the Penal Code, the charge and plea of guilty upon the bare allegation of a previous conviction of the defendant having committed “petty theft,” might subject him to punishment for either of several offenses, since larceny, embezzlement, stealing and false pretenses were by amendment. embraced within the single definition, but that section 666 of the Penal Code was not amended accordingly.

The legislature of 1927 (Stats. 1927, chap. 619, p. 1046), expressly amended sections 484 to 489, both inclusive, and section 490 of said code and added thereto section 490a, providing that:

“Whenever any law or statute of this state

refers to or mentions larceny,

embezzlement or stealing, said law or statute shall hereafter be read and interpreted as if the word ‘theft’ were substituted therefor.”

[701]

Section 666 reads as follows:

“Every person who, having been convicted of petit larceny and having served a term therefor in any penal institution, commits any crime after such conviction, is punishable as follows: