People v. Hoffman

WILSON, J. Defendant was charged with having received a wager on a horse race (bookmaking) in violation of subdivision 3 of section 337a* of the Penal Code. He pleaded not guilty. A jury trial having been waived he was tried by the court and found guilty as charged. His motion for a new trial was denied, proceedings were suspended and he was placed on probation for three years, six months to be spent in jail. His notice of appeal recites that he appeals “from the orders, judgment, and sentence of the Court pronounced and entered against him.” Since there was no judgment or sentence the purported appeals therefrom will be dismissed and we shall consider his appeal as being from the order denying a new trial.

Defendant contends that the corpus delicti was not proved and that the evidence is insufficient to support the conviction.

Police Officer Barnes testified that he entered a pool hall and shortly thereafter saw defendant enter and converse with an unknown man who was looking at a scratch sheet. When the conversation ended the man gave defendant some folded currency which he placed in his pocket. The officer witnessed three or four other such transactions. He then followed defendant to a gasoline station where the latter used a pay telephone. Barnes returned to the pool hall and occupied a seat at the lunch counter next to another unknown man. Defendant returned and the unknown man left his seat and extracted a scratch sheet from beneath a beer case; after examining the scratch sheet he approached defendant who was standing directly in front of the witness; the latter heard the man say, “Give me two to win on Bomber Knight,” [381]and at the same time handed defendant two one-dollar bills. Defendant nodded his head, placed the bills in his pocket and left the premises. Shortly thereafter the officer went to defendant’s home where he, with two other police officers, found defendant, another man and three women. A search of the premises disclosed three scratch sheets on the dining room table, 18 scratch sheets elsewhere in the house covering the period from January 13 to January 24, 1949. At the pool hall the officer found three scratch sheets known as “National Scratch Sheets” under the same beer case from which the unknown bettor had taken his scratch sheet, all dated January 25, the date on which the above described events took place. A “Reporter’s Scratch Sheet” was found behind the lunch counter in the pool hall. An examination of the scratch sheets disclosed that a horse named Bomber Knight was listed in the sixth race at Santa Anita Race Track on January 25. The scratch sheets found in defendant’s home contained notations on races, prices and scratches for the various races listed therein.