People v. Howard

WOOD (Parker), J. Arthur Decatur, John Howard, Alienen Howard (also known as Bobby Decatur), and Lonnie Wilson were accused of forgery. John Howard and Allenea Howard pleaded guilty. In a non jury trial Decatur and Wilson were adjudged guilty. No finding was made regarding allegations in the information that Decatur had been twice convicted of burglary. He had denied those allegations, and the prosecution had introduced evidence in support of the allegations. Decatur was sentenced to imprisonment in the county jail for one year. He appeals from the sentence.

Appellant contends that the judgment should be reversed because certain evidence was obtained by illegal search and seizure. The evidence so referred to consisted of a check protector, a card, and four checks, which articles were taken by the officers from the apartment where appellant was arrested.

Richard Gulley, the secretary and treasurer of the Alco Plating Corporation, testified that in January, 1958, between noon and 1 p. m. on a Wednesday, two men came to his office and asked him questions regarding another plating company in the area; at that time he had two checkbooks of the corporation out (apparently on a desk) where he had been looking at the books, but he had put them aside temporarily while he was attending other matters; the Security-First National Bank book was on top of the Bank of America book; after the men left the office, the witness noticed that the Security checkbook was sitting at an angle which was not the way the witness had placed it; the witness looked in the back of the Security book to see if any checks were missing; he found that seven pages consisting of 21 checks were missing; he gave a police report on that day and stopped payment on the checks; he could identify the appellant as one of the two men; the check, referred to as Exhibit 1, was a check that was missing from his checkbook; the name appearing on that check, as the name of the person who drew the check for the corpora[789]tion, was his name, hut the signature was not his signature and he did not give anyone permission to sign his name thereon.

Mr. Nigma, an employee of a food market at 3029 South Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles, testified that on January 27, 1958, at 6:30 p. m., he was called to the “check okay desk” of the market and was asked to “okay” a check (Exhibit 1) bearing the printed name Alco Plating Corporation and the written name Dick Cully (as drawer), and payable to Lord Kent Bradshaw in the amount of $86.42, which amount was written by a check writer; at that time he observed defendant John Howard, who presented a driver’s license bearing the name Lord Kent Bradshaw; then the witness called the police station and asked that officers be sent to the market.