People v. Mix

WHITE, J. Defendant was convicted of the crime of recording and registering bets, as that offense is set forth in subdivision 4 of section 337a of the Penal Code. He appeals from the judgment, the sentence, and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

On April 20, 1940, police officers observed the appellant in a parking lot on Santa Monica Boulevard, standing near an automobile in which four men were seated. The appellant had a small cardboard notebook in his hand and the men inside the automobile were looking at some papers that were of the size and general appearance of scratch sheets. The automobile in question was registered to appellant. On two occasions appellant was observed in the act of receiving-money from the men in the car and making notations in the small notebook he had in his hands. Upon the approach of an officer appellant threw the notebook under the automobile and the officer immediately picked it up. Following a stipulation entered into at the trial that one of the police officers who appeared as a witness was qualified to testify as an expert in bookmaking matters, the officer testified that the notebook contained betting markers recording the number of the horse, the bettor’s name or initial, and three columns for win, place or show notations. The officer further testified that he compared the numbers on the notebook with the National Scratch Sheet he had purchased for that day, April 20, and found the notations on the betting markers to be numbers of horses running on various tracks for the same day. The officer further testified that he compared a National Scratch Sheet for April 19, which he found in appellant’s car, with the notebook of appellant, and found the numbers in the notebook for Friday, April 19, corresponded with the numbers on the National Scratch Sheet of that date. There were two Metropolitan Scratch Sheets dated April 20 found in appellant’s car, which were identified by the police officer as the sheets the occupants of the [179]car were holding prior to the interference of the officer. A book marked “Time Book” was also found in appellant’s car, which book the arresting officer testified was in his opinion a record of the business done by a bookmaker. At the time of the arrest one of the other occupants of the automobile gave the name of “Jim.” On the betting marker, opposite the number 706, was the notation, “Jim, one to win”. In the presence of appellant “Jim” stated to the officer that that was his bet. This proved to be a horse running in the fifth race at Havre de Grace on the day. Another notation appeared in appellant’s “book” indicating a further bet by “Jim” on a horse running that day at Narragansett named “Liberty Plight”. In the presence of the defendant the person giving his name as Jim admitted this also was his bet.