People v. Laird

LANGDON, P. J.

This is an appeal by the defendant, Laird, from a judgment entered upon a verdict of a jury, finding him guilty of the crime of robbery. A motion for a new trial was made and denied. Appellant and Frank Trombly were charged, jointly, in the information with the commission of the crime.

Appellant complains that the evidence identifying him as one of the men who perpetrated the robbery is insufficient to sustain the verdict. On January 25, 1924, the service station of the Standard Oil Company, situated on the corner of Fourth Avenue and California Street, San Francisco, California, was robbed, the agent in charge of the place being “covered” with a revolver by one man while his companion took the money out of the register.

Raymond Roney, the agent in charge of the service station at the time of the robbery, testified that on the evening in question, about 6:30 P. M., he was alone at said station, when a Ford sedan automobile was driven up close to the entrance and so as to block the entrance; that a man got out of the automobile and, pointing a “gun” at Roney, told him not to move; that another man then got out of the sedan and took all the money out of the cash register; that the two men then re-entered the automobile and drove away. This witness positively identified defendant Frank Trombly as the man who pointed the gun at him, and Trombly admitted this upon the witness-stand when he tried to exonerate the present appellant. Roney, however, was unable to identify appellant as the man who took the money from the register, due to the fact that his attention was occupied with the man who held the revolver, and that the men were only in the station a few seconds, and Roney was unable to get a view of the “second man’s” face. Said witness stated that appellant corresponded in height, weight, and physique to the man who took the money. He also testified that this “second man” wore a dark blue suit, and that the last two numbers upon the license plate of the Ford

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automobile were seven and four, and that those were the only numbers on the license plate which he could see.

The witness Millard, employed at an automobile parking station in San Francisco, testified that from January 15, 1924, to January 30, 1924 (the day of appellant’s arrest) he saw appellant every day; that appellant made a practice of parking a Ford sedan, license number 50-174, in the said parking station; that each time the automobile was brought into or taken out of the parking station appellant brought it in or took it out and that the witness had never seen Frank Trombly.