People v. Bonilla

SCOVEL, J.,

pro

tem.

The information in this case charged the defendant with burglary, alleging that he wil

[213]

fully and unlawfully entered a shop known as Cornwell’s Tire Service, on the Corona-Elsinore Road in Riverside County, with intent then and there and therein to commit the crime of larceny. Two other counts set forth in the information were dismissed prior to trial and are not involved in this appeal.

The evidence produced on behalf of the prosecution discloses that Thomas G. Cornwell was the owner of a service station and tire shop near Elsinore in Riverside County. He locked the doors and windows of his place of business about midnight on June 16, 1931. Upon returning the following morning he found a window broken, that the front windows had been unlocked and propped open, and that about $400 worth of tires had been taken.

One Joe Johnson, an admitted accomplice, testified, after the establishing of the foregoing facts, that he had met the ' defendant in Corona in Riverside County several days prior to the burglary of the service station and that they had talked of “knocking over a job”. Present at this conversation, and later an accomplice of Johnson and defendant in the service station burglary, was one Dan Delaney. The defendant agreed to help Delaney and Johnson and that evening the latter two burglarized a dry-goods store in Corona. The defendant was not present, but the stolen goods were taken to his home in five suitcases and were carried by him to Los Angeles in his truck. O'f the fruits of this burglary defendant received one suitcase of clothes.

Johnson further testified that approximately two weeks later he and Delaney returned to Corona and in riding around the vicinity they “spotted” the Cornwell service station and after meeting the defendant the three of them decided to burglarize the place that evening. It was agreed that the defendant should have no part in the.actual robbing of the station, but that he would haul the loot away in his truck. Accordingly, later that evening, defendant, together with Johnson and Delaney, rode in the truck to a point approximately a mile from the station. Defendant remained with the truck, the other two going to the station and after forcing an entrance by breaking a window, took approximately forty tires and a slot-machine. The tires and slot-machine were piled together near the road and later defendant drove to the spot and loaded them on his truck. All