People v. Alverson

PETERS, J. Alverson, Stoner and Williamson were jointly charged with and tried for burglary. Five prior Convictions were charged against and admitted by Alverson, and one prior was charged against and admitted by Williamson. The jury found Alverson and Stoner guilty of second degree burglary, and acquitted Williamson. Alverson alone appeals.

The charged burglary was of a radio store in Los Angeles. There is no need to recite the evidence in detail. For the purposes of this appeal all that need be stated is that at the close of the evidence the prosecution’s case against Williamson was strong, and, comparatively, was weak against the two other defendants, except for the testimony of Williamson. The latter had been positively identified as the driver of the getaway car, and when stopped by the police, had fled the scene. When arrested he had given extrajudicial statements to the police which were recorded and introduced against him. In those statements, not admitted against his codefendants, he admitted driving the getaway car and fleeing the scene, but claimed that he did not know of the burglary until the other two defendants got into the car, told him that they had burglarized the radio store, and advised him to drive away. He gave as his reason for fleeing the scene when accosted by the police that he was afraid to be found with the other defendants because of his prior conviction. At the trial he took the stand in his own defense and testified to the same story, including a positive identification of the two codefendants as the perpetrators of the crime. This judicial statement was, properly, admitted, not only against Williamson, but against Alverson and Stoner as well.

As already pointed out, except for this testimony of Williamson, the case against appellant and Stoner was comparatively weak. The prosecution had been unable to produce any direct evidence of identification of these two defendants as participants in the crime. It had introduced circumstantial evidence of certain suspicious facts that tended to connect them with the crime, but this evidence was of such a charac-, [805]ter that, while it may have sustained a conviction, such a conviction would have been doubtful. Both Stoner and appellant had taken the stand, denied any participation in the crime, and offered alibis. These alibis were supported by independent testimony.

This was the position of the case at the close of the evidence. If the jury believed Williamson’s testimony identifying the two codefendants as the perpetrators of the crime,, but disbelieved him, as it could well have done, as to his testimony of any knoxvledge of the crime prior to its commission, then Williamson would, obviously, have been an accomplice, and his testimony would have to be corroborated. But if the jury could be induced to find that Williamson had no knowledge of the crime until after it was committed, then it could find that he was not an accomplice, and his testimony alone would be sufficient to convict his two codefendants. The prosecutor was faced with a difficult dilemma. If he argued that Williamson was not to be believed as to his lack of prior knowledge of the crime, but to be believed as to his identification of his two codefendants, he would not only be making Williamson an accomplice whose testimony had to be corroborated, but he would also be faced with the instruction “That a witness false in one part of his testimony is to be distrusted in others.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 2061, subd. 3.) To make such an argument might well result in the acquittal of Alverson and Stoner, and might not result in the conviction of Williamson. But if the prosecutor could induce the jury to believe all of Williamson’s testimony, then, although Williamson would be acquitted, the case against the otlier two defendants would be unmeasurably strengthened. If the jury disbelieved all of Williamson’s testimony the case against Alverson and Stoner would almost certainly collapse.