People v. Coon

YORK, P. J. Appellants were charged jointly in an indictment containing two counts with the crime of grand theft, and were found guilty by the court sitting without a jury of the crime of grand theft and also of the crime of petty theft (a lesser offense than that charged in count one of the indictment but necessarily included therein). These appeals are prosecuted separately by the appellants from the judgments of conviction and appellant Zeismer also appeals from the order by which his motion for a new trial was denied.

The main point presented by the briefs of appellants is that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the judgments in that there is no evidence of any unlawful intent.

The record reveals that appellant Coon was a member of the Santa Monica fire department, having been employed as such for a continuous period of over nine years; that ap[471]pellant Zeismer was a police officer of the city of Santa Monica, and the defendant Powers was employed by the Santa Monica police department as a painter of pedestrian crossings. On Wednesday, November 23, 1938, a brush fire was raging in the hills close to the Roosevelt Highway in the Malibu district north of Santa Monica, and during the afternoon of that day the fire jumped across the highway and destroyed several cabins along the waterfront, including a cottage occupied by one Parmenter, and another occupied by two young airplane hostesses, Thelma Weld and Kathleen Kay. On the day following the fire—Thanksgiving Day, certain personal belongings of Mr. Parmenter, which the trial court found to be of a value of less than $200, and certain personal belongings of the airplane hostesses, which the court found to be of a value of more than $200, were found to be missing. These articles of personal property were returned to the Santa Monica police station on the Monday following the fire and the three named defendants were charged with their theft.

The record further reveals the undisputed fact that the personal property charged to have been removed from the cottages which were destroyed by fire was taken by appellants Coon and Zeismer, defendant Powers and one Kenneth Hubbard, a sergeant of police of the Santa Monica police department, on the evening of November 23, 1938, loaded into Coon’s car and driven away; also that a certain automatic refrigerator was taken from one of the cottages by appellant Coon and defendant Powers and placed near a cafe known as “Mike’s Place” operated by the witness Trujillo. Later that night this refrigerator was moved from that place by appellant Coon and defendant Powers and placed in the kitchen of the latter’s home. Most of the property taken consisted of wearing apparel and bedding, including a fur coat and a fur rug, and after he had removed it from the scene of the fire, appellant Coon was directed by the chief of police of Santa Monica, Charles Dice, to “take the stuff to the life guard station”. Appellant Coon complied with this direction, but an hour or so later he returned and took it away from the said station, put it' in his bluish green La Salle sedan and took it to his home where he placed it in a pile on the floor of the living room therein. That night, at the request of Kenneth Hubbard, who was appellant Zeismer’s superior officer, appellant Zeismer called at appellant