People v. Reynolds

YORK, J.

By information the appellant was charged with the crimes of burglary and receiving stolen property, and also with two prior convictions of felonies. Appellant admitted the prior convictions and was found guilty of burglary and not guilty of receiving stolen property.

The errors of which appellant complains are these:

1. Insufficiency of the evidence to justify the verdict for the reason that the

corpus delicti

was not established.

2. Error committed by the trial court in matters of law in the reception of certain evidence.

3. Error of the trial court in giving certain instructions to the jury, and in refusing to give certain instructions tendered by the defendant and not covered by the instructions given.

4. Misconduct of the deputy district attorney in his argument to the jury.

[756]

It is shown by the record that on June 19, 1932, William J. Steinmetz was living in room 411 of the Hotel Rose at Long Beach, and that he returned to his room at about 12:30 A. M. of June 20th, retired about forty-five minutes later, having first locked the door of his room. Before retiring he took off his wrist watch and laid it upon a table near the telephone, and hung his trousers on a chair. Upon arising at 9 o’clock the next morning, he found the wrist watch missing and also that the sum of $4.85 had been taken from his trousers pocket. He testified that he did not give anyone permission to enter his room that night, and that the watch which he lost was a 17-jewel Hamilton wrist watch with the date of his birthday engraved on the inside of the case. He also testified that the door of his room was still locked in the morning and that the room had not been disturbed.

A 17-jewel Hamilton wrist watch with the date' above Acted engraved upon the inside of the case was found in appellant's possession at the time of his arrest on July 7, 1932, and was identified by the witness Steinmetz as the watch he had lost. There was introduced in evidence a sheet from the Hotel Rose register purported to have been signed by “C. D. Nolen” upon the date that the burglary took place. An identification sheet which was prepared immediately after the arrest of appellant, and which the witness Slaight testified he saw appellant sign, was also introduced in evidence. A handwriting expert testified that, in his opinion, both documents were signed by one and the same, person.