People v. Jacklin

HOUSER, P. J. By the terms of an information that was filed in the superior court against defendant, he was charged with having committed the crime of robbery; also, that theretofore defendant had been convicted of the commission by him of a felony, for which he had served a term of imprisonment in the state prison. On his arraignment, he pleaded not guilty to the charge of robbery, but admitted his prior conviction of a felony as alleged in the information.

Following defendant’s conviction and the subsequent denial of his motion for a new trial, he has appealed, not only from the ensuing judgment, but also from the order by which his motion for a new trial was denied.

For the reason that in many particulars appellant has failed to comply with the rules of the Supreme Court and the District Courts of Appeal with reference to the preparation of his brief, it is difficult, if even possible, for this court to be certain as to the exact points which appellant [408]desires to have considered on his appeal. But from a careful reading of his brief, it appears, that appellant’s principal point is that the evidence adduced on the trial of the action was insufficient to support the judgment, for the reason that the testimony that was given by the complaining witness was not only unbelievable, but also that the testimony that was given by defendant was more probably true. In that connection, in substance, the testimony that was given by the former was to the effect that after with his automobile he had pushed defendant’s apparently “stalled” automobile across an intersection of two streets, defendant’s engine “sputtered” and defendant then drove it close to the curb and there stopped it; at which time and place he alighted and seemed to begin an inspection of his engine. The complaining witness, also having stopped his automobile, then personally approached defendant and inquired of him if he might be of assistance; whereupon defendant placed “something” against the back and side of the complaining witness and told him that it was a “stickup”; and thereupon, through the influence of threats of bodily injury made to the complaining witness by defendant, the former was robbed by defendant of certain articles of personal property, which included the sum of thirty cents in cash. The substance of defendant’s story was that the complaining witness had given those articles to him as security for the sum of $3, which the complaining witness had agreed to pay to defendant in consideration of the submission by defendant to the commission by the complaining witness upon the person of defendant of an immoral act.