People v. Holland

JEFFERSON, J. In an information filed by the District Attorney of Los Angeles County defendant was charged with a violation of Penal Code section 211, robbery. Defendant pleaded not guilty and after a jury trial he was found guilty as charged. His motion for a new trial was denied, proceedings were suspended and defendant was granted probation for three years. Defendant appeals from the judgment (the order granting probation) and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

The facts material to this appeal viewed favorably to the People are as follows: On the evening of March 3, 1961, prosecutrix Leilani Seals, 16 years of age, left her home about 5:30 in the evening and walked to a Thriftimart supermarket located at the southeast corner of Vermont and Adams Street in the City of Los Angeles for the purpose of cashing ■two cheeks given to her by her mother. She cashed the cheeks and obtained $49.60. WTiile walking from the market, counting the money and preparing to put it into her sweater pocket she noticed defendant, following 2 or 3 feet behind her. She knew him by sight but not by name.

Defendant continued to follow the prosecutrix after she left the market, and, near the entrance to an alley to the parking area behind the market, he approached her from the rear, grabbed her arm and said, “Give me the money.” She screamed, grabbed the money from her pocket and tried to [79]escape from defendant’s grip by getting out of the loose fitting bulky sweater which she was wearing. Defendant threw her to the ground, kneeled over her and after a brief struggle, jerked the money from her hand. He rose, walked a few feet away, turned and said, “Come on. Go in the house.” He then began to run.

An identification witness, Herman Brown, a construction worker, was walking toward the market when he heard the screams of the prosecutrix across the street and saw her struggling with defendant. He saw defendant throw her to the ground and then saw that defendant “pulled his hand from her real fast and he started walking off. ’ ’ He then heard defendant say, “You had better come on. I am going on.” Defendant then walked about 20 feet before he “broke and ran.” Mr. Brown testified that someone, unidentified at the trial, chased defendant and that he joined in the chase but was delayed in crossing Adams Street because of heavy traffic. When he finally crossed the street a lady, unidentified at the trial, told him that the fellow who was running “jumped in the back end of a car, laid down, and the car took off with him.”