People v. Ince

FOURT, J. The appellant was convicted of burglary in the second degree and after denial of his application for probation, and denial of his motion for a new trial, was sentenced to the state prison. He appeals from the judgment rendered and from the denial of the motion for a new trial.

In an information filed in the Superior Court in Los Angeles County, J. W. Ince and Howard John William Gray were charged with burglary in violation of section 459 of the Penal Code. It was alleged that on February 4, 1954, in Los Angeles County, defendants entered a storage shed and building owned and occupied by RCS Engineering Company with the intent to commit theft. It was also alleged that there had been two prior felony convictions of defendant Gray in the state of Texas. After arraignment each defendant pleaded not guilty and appellant denied the prior convictions. Trial by jury was waived and the cause was submitted on the transcript of the preliminary hearing and other and additional evidence by both parties. The court found appellant guilty as charged and found both prior convictions to be true.

A fair résumé of the evidence is as follows: Bruce A. Barnes testified that he is the general manager of RCS Engineering Company in Glendora; that connected with their business is a storage yard on Cherry Street, in Paramount, and up until about February 4, 1954, the company had a quantity of valves stored in the yard; about February 9, 1954, Barnes noticed that the 4-inch valves which had been stored in the yard at Paramount were missing; he noted that a number of boards had been knocked off the back of the building; he then called the owner of the building and the sheriff’s office; there was a daytime watchman at the yard, but none at night; the next time he saw the valves was when [384]he saw 12 of them at the Long Beach Pipe and Supply Company in Long Beach; the valves were first stored at the yard on January 17, 1954, at which time the building was in good repair with reference to any missing boards; the valves in question were a special type, brass mounted, expensive and infrequently used in this country; the manufacturer’s name of the valves is “Crane Valve, 4-ineh, brass mounted screw valve”; the operators of a ranch at Los Alamitos, known as the Vessels Ranch, had specially ordered a number of these valves from the manufacturer, Chicago Crane Company, to be used in an installation at the ranch; however, it was afterwards determined to install a different sprinkler system and aluminum valves; the ranch operators bought the sprinkler system and aluminum valves from the RCS Engineering Company, and that company took the Crane valves in trade; there were 53 of the valves taken in trade, and 41 of them were at the Paramount yard, each being worth about $42 on the wholesale market; the valve which was in evidence in court was identified as being the same as the ones in storage, excepting that the manufacturer’s identification tag had been removed. The valves were not usually sold in a group. The brass-mounted screw is a distinguishing feature of the valve and no one else has them in Southern California. Barnes did not know either of the defendants.