People v. Wong Chong Suey

Van Fleet, J. Defendant appeals from a judgment convicting him of grand larceny and an order denying him a new trial, and makes the single point that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the verdict.

We were strongly of the impression at the oral argument that the contention of appellant could not be sustained, but the point was urged with so much earnestness and evident sincerity on the part of counsel in the correctness of his position, as to induce at our hands a further careful examination and consideration of the evidence in the light of the criticisms passed upon it. The result is only to confirm our impressions into conviction, and to satisfy us that we would not be warranted in disturbing the verdict.

The specific charge was the taking of sixty dollars in money belonging to one Hervey on October 26, 1894, and the evidence of the prosecution tended to show these facts in substance. Defendant was a domestic in the family of Hervey, having been recently employed therein as cook. His sleeping room was in the basement. In another room in the basement his employer had a safe in which he kept valuable papers, and, at times, a limited sum of money for current household expenses. On this occasion it contained sixty dollars in gold in twenty-dollar pieces. The defendant had opportunity to know the general purposes for which the safe was kept, and had access to the room wherein it stood. On the date in question, between 7 and 8 o’clock in the evening, just after finishing his work for the day, the defendant came upstairs and announced in an apparently excited manner that he had lost all his money, every cent he had, and some clothing; that his room [120]had heen entered and thirty-four dollars in money, a pair of new trousers that he had just got the day before, and an overcoat taken. Upon immediate investigation by Mr. Hervey, it was discovered that the safe door stood open, and that the sixty dollars and some small articles of jewelry had been abstracted from the money drawer, but that nothing else in the safe had been in any way disturbed, nor was any further evidence discovered in the basement of the presence of an intruder. The defendant’s room was in order and undisturbed, except that defendant claimed that his clothing had been taken from the wall, with the money which he claimed had been left in the pocket of one of the garments. A small window stood open near the safe, but the blinds were closed and a heavy layer of dust on the sill was wholly undisturbed, and there was nothing to indicate that any one had passed in or out by that means. The door leading out of the basement was locked and defendant had the key.