People v. Walbeck

BARNARD, P. J. A jury convicted the defendant of grand theft in the taking of certain household furniture be[279]longing to one Charles Hewins. She has appealed from the judgment and from an order denying her motion for a new trial.

In 1933, Mr. Hewins located a mining claim in the mountains near San Bernardino. He built two cabins and a large house. He lived in the latter, having therein a large amount of furniture including some old family silver and dishes and a few pieces claimed to be antiques. In 1935, Mr. Walbeck came to work for Hewins and lived at his home for some eighteen months, during which time he did some work for Mr. Hewins and also worked elsewhere. He seems to have left the Hewins home in the summer of 1937, but apparently remained in the neighborhood. In May, 1939, he bought eighty acres of land which adjoined the Hewins claim. Sometime later, although the exact time does not appear, a survey was made and it was discovered that Mr. Hewins’ house and two cabins were on the land which Walbeck had purchased. In June, 1939, the defendant, who had lived in the vicinity since 1937, married Walbeck. Thereafter, they lived in a house a few hundred yards from the Hewins home.

In the spring of 1940, Hewins and his wife left their house and after spending a few months in Santa Ana went to Arizona where they remained for some two years. They left their furniture in the house, leaving it in charge of a caretaker, Mr. Martin, who was allowed to live in one of the cabins. On August 1, 1941, Martin left and wrote to Hewins in Arizona informing him of that fact. Before leaving, he nailed the windows of the Hewins house shut and locked all the doors, the front door being locked with a heavy bolt on the inside and the back door with a padlock on the outside. He also locked the front gate with a chain and padlock. About a month later he drove by the property and observed that the chain on the front gate had been cut and that Mr. and Mrs. Walbeck were living in the house.

A few days after August 1, 1941, Mr. and Mrs. Walbeck moved into the Hewins house and took possession of the furniture therein. On August 14, 1941, the defendant secured a loan of $334.56 from a finance company, giving a mortgage on this furniture as partial security. On August 29, 1941, the defendant delivered four pieces of this furniture to a dealer in Ontario for the purpose of having it reupholstered. Later, upon her failure to pay his bill, he repossessed these articles. [280]