People v. Poole

JEFFERSON, J. Defendant was found guilty, in a trial by the court, of robbery in the first degree (Pen. Code, § 211a), and a prior felony conviction of robbery was found to be true. The ease was submitted to the court on the transcript of the preliminary examination with no additional evidence being offered by either side.

Shortly after 4 a.m. on January 9, 1963, a man wearing a trenchcoat, rubber gloves and a silk stocking pulled over his head, entered the lobby of the Tliunderbird Hotel in El Segundo. At the point of a gun he ordered the four hotel employees on night duty into the manager’s office and forced [40]them to lie on the floor. Even though the man had a stocking over his face the manager was able to recognize him as defendant. The manager was ordered to accompany defendant to the front desk, where defendant took the cash box, and then to the location of the hotel safe. After the manager convinced defendant that he did not have the combination to the safe, defendant took a cigar box containing $498 in cash which the manager kept in his office and left after warning the employees to keep quiet and to remain on the floor for several minutes. A few seconds after defendant left the employees got up and scattered in different directions looking for him. One of them spotted him getting into an elevator on the first floor of the new wing of the hotel. This employee observed that defendant had not gone down to the basement in the elevator. The police arrived shortly thereafter and a room to room search of the new wing of the hotel was initiated. At about 6 a.m. the officers, accompanied by the manager of the hotel, came to room 670. The manager knocked on the door. Defendant, in his underwear, answered the door. When the officers explained that a robbery had occurred and that they believed the suspect was hiding in the new wing, defendant admitted the officers to the room, and went back to bed. Underneath a bedspread which had been thrown over a chair, the officers found a trenchcoat, a grey metal cash box and a cigar box with money inside. From the pockets of the trenchcoat the officers removed a woman’s silk stocking, an automatic pistol, a clip of ammunition and a pair of rubber gloves.

At approximately 11 a.m. on the morning of the robbery an investigating officer had a conversation with defendant in an interrogation room of the police station. In this conversation, defendant stated that, upon his return to the hotel from a party early that morning, he decided to hold up the lobby of the hotel; he went to his room, put on a rain-type hat, a trenchcoat and a pair of rubber gloves; he covered his head with a silk stocking; he then went downstairs and held up the lobby.