People v. Cooper

GRIFFIN, J. A trial without a jury resulted in the conviction of defendant of the crime of burglary, second degree. As a condition of a five-year probation order defend[516]ant was required to serve 30 days in jail, pay a fine of $600, and make restitution for actual damage done to the premises which defendant was found to have entered.

The sole ‘question involved is the sufficiency of the evidence to support the judgment, and this bears mainly on the question of the identification of the accused. It is conceded that the evidence shows a burglary of the Bold Auto and Equipment Company building located near Bold’s Used Car Lot in El Centro. There were two doors entering from this lot into the main building. Another door led to the showroom and another to the shop. Bold inspected and left the premises locked on Sunday, January 31, 1954, about 2 p. m. He returned about 4 p. m. and on entering the showroom he observed the window broken at the cashier’s office, and a number of tools, consisting of small punches, crowbars, and a sledge hammer, were lying on the floor by the safe. Marks were on the vault door. He then proceeded to the shop and the south door was found to be unlocked and partially open, and the east door had a screwdriver placed through the inside clasp. The doors were locked with padlocks when he left at 2 o’clock. The lock on a door on the north side had been pried loose and a lock had been broken on a tool box. A trap door leading from the roof to the parts department had been pried open and entrance was gained by means of a ladder.

It appears that about 3 o’clock that day Benson, the parts man, and one Hembree drove to the shop in their own ears, unlocked the front door and heard a noise as though someone was running into the shop department. They proceeded to that place and saw a man near the south door which led to the used car lot. He was standing there with his head down and he then went out the door. He was wearing baggy slacks, a reddish-colored shirt, and no hat. Hembree identified this man as the same one who was standing at the edge of the lot when they arrived at the door. Benson called to him on two occasions and on the last one defendant came back to them. He was asked what was going on and defendant said a man just ran by, grabbed his (defendant’s) hat, and “went that-a-way.” He pointed toward the front of the premises. Benson saw no one in that direction but all three of them ran to the front of the building and they still observed no one there. About that time a blue Chevrolet car pulled out from the curb across the highway and defendant said that the persons in that car were the ones who ran by him.