People v. Horace

BRAY, J. After trial without a jury defendant was convicted of attempted burglary (second degree).* He appeals from the judgment and from the order denying new trial, contending that the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction.

Evidence

About 2 a. m. Police Sergeant Engler, riding in a private automobile by the premises of the Thompson Products Company on Fulton Street in San Francisco, observed defendant standing on the sidewalk near the property line of Thompson. He also noticed that a window at the Thompson building was broken. Bugler’s car momentarily stopped and defendant seemed to look towards it. After turning the corner Engler looked through its back window and saw defendant stick his head around the corner as though to see where the car was going. As Engler circled the block defendant got into his automobile which was parked at the curb in front of the Thompson building. As defendant drove off, Engler followed and stopped defendant, who was alone in the ear. Engler asked him what he was doing around the building. Defendant smiled and said nothing. Defendant had cuts and tears in his clothing and some glass in the cuffs of his trousers, and minute particles of glass in his clothing. There were also bits of glass on the floor mat of the car and imbedded in a hammer that was partly under the front seat. Defendant was returned to the Thompson building and stripped of his trousers, jacket and shoes. The latter had glass in the soles. Engler and another officer searched the building, entering it through the broken window. There was a brown leather case containing a movie projector beneath the window on top of' a pile of brake linings. Cartons of brake linings were tipped over and linings were all over the floor. The drawers in the desks on the premises were all pulled out and appeared to have been gone through. Glass samples were taken from the floor under the window and from outside the window and from the [397]floor of the car (The entire glass that was on the sidewalk was confined to a 2-foot semicircle around the window.) Nothing was found on defendant’s person that could be established as coming from the Products company, nor was anything missing ■ from the building.

At the police station defendant denied having been in the building and said that he had been up the street visiting a friend, had just left and was getting into his car when Engler came along. Defendant was not sure whether the home of the friend was in the same block as the building. It might have been a block up.