People v. Henderson

PRESTON, J. Appeal from judgment entered upon jury verdict convicting defendant of the crime of contributing to the delinquency of a minor by giving her intoxicating liquor. Appellant urges insufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict and prejudicial error and misconduct alleged to have occurred during trial of the cause and in connection with charging the jury. It is unnecessary to pass definitely upon the first contention as said error, which under other circumstances might be nonprejudicial, may well have swayed the conclusions of this jury in view of the conflicting evidence and its doubtful sufficiency to warrant a conviction. The following is a resume of some 2'00 pages of testimony taken on the trial.

The complaining witness was a Mexican high school girl, approaching 16 years of age, who resided at 1459 East 18th Street, Los Angeles, some five blocks' from the general dry goods store and postoffice operated by defendant, a middle-aged negro. Her story is that she had known the store, and defendant in connection therewith, for some two years; that on the afternoon of December 24, 1933, she left home with a man in a Ford car, a friend of her mother, who dropped her off at the home of a girl friend a few blocks away; that at the latter place nobody was home, so she left and walked to defendant's store, arriving shortly after 3 o’clock; that he was alone, as he had been on previous occasions when she [190]■patronized the store; that she asked to look at dresses; that while she was looking a man customer came in, was waited on and left; that defendant offered her a dress cheap; that he then gave her a quarter and asked her to buy him a bottle of gingerale; that she went across the street and made the purchase; that when she told who it was for, the lady did not require her to pay a deposit on the bottle; that she returned and gave defendant the change and the gingerale; that she then resumed discussion of the purchase of a dress; that he insisted and practically forced her to drink a mixture of the gingerale and some other liquid; that altogether she had three glasses; that during this period, the above-mentioned man customer again came in the store and talked for some minutes with defendant; that she finally completed her purchase but became dizzy and fell on her knees, whereupon defendant hit her and in a daze she ran from the store and walked along the street, remembering no more until after she was taken from her home some hours later to police headquarters and a doctor.

The above-mentioned man customer was a police officer in plain clothes. He testified that he saw complainant on both visits to the store; that the first time she was looking at a dress; that he stayed four or five minutes; that some three or four minutes later, a little after 4 o ’clock, he returned and as he entered the door he noticed the girl going up to her mouth with her left hand, having some kind of liquid in a glass or bottle; that he left very soon; that on both occasions defendant was leaning back near the cash register, well away from the girl; that on the second visit the dress was on the counter with wrapping paper and cord; that there were also on the counter a number of bottles of hair oils, toilet waters, cosmetics, lotions, etc., and the girl was standing near the portion of the counter where the bottles were.