People v. Montgomery

DORAN, J. Defendant is charged with burglary with two prior convictions. The priors were admitted. A jury trial resulted in a conviction of second degree burglary. Defendant appeals from the “judgment sentence.” Since no appeal lies from the sentence, the purported appeal therefrom must be dismissed. (People v. Douglas, 141 Cal.App.2d 33, 34 [296 P.2d 1].)

Appellant contends that the “People failed to establish a corpus delicti,” that the evidence was insufficient and that a motion for a new trial was improperly denied.

The facts, as recited in respondent’s brief, are as follows:

“At approximately 4:10 a. m. on June 7, 1955, two officers of the Los Angeles Police Department encountered appellant and Eddie Lee Sales in an alley in the rear of an apart[122]ment house at 4054 South Central. Appellant was in the process of taking a brass roller out of the back of his car. He and Sales had been riding in this car. When appellant saw the police, he walked to the rear of the car, removed a jack from the trunk and started to jack up the ear. The police asked appellant if he was going to change a flat tire. He said no, that he was going to rotate his tires. Sales continued taking other pieces out of the car. A large gear and some brass rollers and pieces of brass pipe were observed in the back seat of the car. (The officers at the scene were Conroy and Doss.)

“When the police asked appellant what he was doing in the alleyway, he said he was going home and that he lived there in the apartment building. He did not know the address, however. Subsequently, the police found that he lived some 35 blocks away.

“In reply to questions as to the source of the items in the car, appellant stated that he had bought them from a man at a foundry. . . .

“The gear in the back of the antomobile had a tag ‘United Piece Dye Works, 5000 Long Beach. ’ This address was about 14 or 15 blocks from where the officers encountered appellant. . . .

“Walter Wigglesworth, the chief engineer of the United Piece Dye Works, identified the heavy brass gear as part of a stock of spare parts that were kept in a wooden building in the rear of the premises. This building was Mr. Wiggles-worth’s storehouse. The gear was one of the items found in the rear of the automobile appellant and his companion were unloading the night of the arrest. Various brass rollers and pipes were kept in this building. A few days earlier, when Mr. Wigglesworth had last been in there, the building was intact and the heavy brass gear was present. Upon his examination of the building at 8:00 a. m., June 7, 1955, Mr. Wigglesworth saw a hole in the wall, large enough for a man to crawl through, and found that the heavy brass gear and some brass rollers and pipes were missing. (Beside the gear, several brass rollers and pipes were found in appellant’s and Sales’ automobile.)