People v. Jones

PEEK, J. Defendant was convicted on three and acquitted on one of the four counts of an information charging him with the violation of section 288 of the Penal Code, From our examination of the record it appears that the trial court properly denied his motion for a new trial and that the judgment of conviction should be affirmed.

Two contentions are made by defendant, (1) that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion for a new trial and (2) that the evidence was insufficient to support the judgment of conviction. ITe does not separately argue the contentions so made, but appears to have combined his attack upon both the order and the judgment, contending that by reason of certain affidavits introduced by him at the hearing on said motion the testimony of the complaining witnesses was unworthy of belief and obviously false and therefore as a matter of law failed to sustain the convictions, and that for the same reason the trial court abused its discretion ip denying his motion for a new trial.

The record discloses substantial evidence, uncontradicted except for defendant’s categorical denials, that the three young boys aged 6, 9 and 12 years respectively, who are named in the counts upon which defendant was found guilty, appeared and testified fully concerning the acts alleged in said information; that said complaining witnesses played with defendant on numerous occasions, both in his apartment and on the lawn of the housing project where all of the parties lived; that when the boys visited said apartment during the period in question defendant would lock the door, and when their parents called for them he would let the boys out of the apartment through the back door, and that the father of one of the complaining witnesses testified concerning the physical condition of his son and one of the other complaining witnesses. The record also discloses testimony by the defendant admitting the showing of obscene photographs to one of the boys.

Shortly after the trial one of the complaining witnesses signed an affidavit to the effect that the testimony given by him at the trial was false and that he was not molested in any manner by the defendant. By a counteraffidavit dated four days thereafter this same witness averred that his original testimony was true; that his prior affidavit was not true, that he did not state the defendant had not molested him but that the defendant had not hurt him, meaning that he had not suffered physical injury as a result of the defendant’s acts [153]