People v. Duncan

DORAN, J. Appellant and one Andrade were charged with robbery. Andrade pleaded guilty. Appellant was adjudged guilty, by the court, a jury having been waived. The appeal is from the judgment.

It is contended on appeal that the evidence is insufficient to support the judgment.

Briefly the record reveals that two men armed with revolvers entered the store of Simon Dershowitz. As recited in respondent’s brief, Dershowitz testified, “that at about 3:15 in the afternoon of July 25, 1950 two men came to his store with guns and that his wife, who was in the store with him ran out of the store and that one of the men ran after her and then came back with the gun and hit the witness on the head with the gun. Before the witness was hit, one of the men said to him, ‘Money, money, money, money, . . . quick. ’; that then the witness was hit in the head with a gun and that he opened the cash register. The witness then lost consciousness and when he recovered his consciousness he found that the bills were gone from his cash register. He testified that the money in the register was in the sum of approximately $70. The witness testified that because of the injury to his head he was required to go to the hospital and that he was treated.

“Mr. Dershowitz testified that one of the men was the defendant Andrade and that it was the other man who hit him on the head. The witness testified that he did not see the defendant Duncan.

“The wife of the preceding witness, Pauline Dershowitz, testified that she was in the liquor store on the afternoon of July 25th and that she saw the men enter the store; that one of the men had a gun in his hand. She testified that one of the men was the defendant Andrade; that Andrade did not have a gun; that Andrade said, ‘It is a stickup’. She testified that she ran out of the store and into the drug store next to the liquor store and asked them to call the police. She testified that as she was coming out of the drug store the men were [18]coming out of the liquor store and entering the car; that the ear was parked in front of the drug store and that it was a red car.”

The clerk in the drugstore obtained the number of the car. The police were notified and the car traced to the owner Beverly Garcia. “She testified that she knew the defendant Paul Jerry Duncan and that he borrowed her car on the afternoon of July 25 because something had happened to his ear. She testified that she agreed to lend the car; that she gave him the key to the car around 1 o’clock in the afternoon; that she next saw the car around 3 or 3:30 and that the car was parked in front of her house.”