People v. Smith

NOURSE, J.

The defendant was convicted upon information charging him and one Edward Egan jointly with the crime of robbery. The two were separately tried and the defendant has appealed from the order denying him a new trial and from the judgment.

The facts of the case are that on the twenty-eighth day of October, 192'4, the complaining witnesses, Mr. and Mrs. P. I. Jacoby, returned to their home in Jackson street, in the city and county of San Francisco, at about 12 o’clock midnight and retired to their sleeping apartments upon one of the upper floors of the building. Their home had two entrances, one in the front of the house, through which they entered, and another in the rear, which was known as the tradesmen’s entrance, and was used by servants of the family. When the Jacobys entered their sleeping apartment two men, both masked and armed with black automatic pistols, confronted them and after robbing them of jewelry of the value of over #12,000, locked them in a closet and left without disturbing anything else in the house. When the Jacobys escaped from the closet they telephoned

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to the police and immediately gave them a description of the bandits and of the jewelry which had been taken. They then examined the premises and found that none of the doors or windows had been disturbed, but that the rear door, or the tradesman’s entrance, was unbolted. At this time the Jaeobys had in their employ two servants, namely, Delia Cooney, a cook, and Maria Beraudiere, a second maid. The Jaeobys had left their home at 7 o’clock that evening with the intention of spending the evening with friends and the two servants were the only other occupants of the house at the time.

Three days after the night of the robbery the defendant, Egan, and one Harry Wright were arrested while seated in a Ford sedan which was parked outside of Wright’s cleaning and pressing establishment. At the time they were talking to a woman by the name of Mamie Manning. The three men and the woman were all taken into Wright’s place of business and following a search the Jacoby jewels with one exception were found in Wright’s pocket. At that time in answer to the question from the police officers Wright stated in the presence of both the defendant and Egan that he had obtained the jewels from those two. Of this accusation neither the defendant nor Egan made any denial. At the same time upon a search of the premises a black automatic pistol was found as to which Wright stated at the time that he had seen the pistol in Egan’s possession that morning. To this no reply was made by either the defendant or Egan. On the same day while all the parties were present at the police station Wright made a written statement which directly charged defendant and Egan with the robbery. This statement was later read to both the defendant and to Egan in Wright’s presence and these two were asked whether they had anything to say regarding it and both failed to make answer. At the same time it was brought out that Delia Cooney, the cook in the Jacoby home, was a sister-in-law of Egan, and that a short time before the robbery the two Jacoby servants had visited a home in the city where they had met Egan and Mamie Manning, the woman who was with the defendant and Egan at the time of their arrest.