People v. Campo

FOURT, J. This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction of forgery (§470, Pen. Code), and of receiving stolen property (§496, subd. 1, Pen. Code).

In an information filed in Los Angeles County on July 27, 1967, James Eldon Campo (appellant) and Carl Lockhart were charged in count 1 with burglarizing a building on May [31413], 1967; in count 2 Campo was charged with forgery in that he did on May 13, 1967. make a check in writing for the payment of $112.23 and did then pass the same knowing the check was forged and with intent to cheat and defraud Sara’s Place; in count 3 it was charged that Campo did on May 13, 1967, receive a camera and certain cheeks knowing the same to have been stolen from Lewis Smith. Certain prior convictions were also charged against Campo. Campo pleaded not guilty and at first denied the charged priors. Later he admitted to seven prior convictions.

In a jury trial Campo was found not guilty of the charged burglary and guilty of the charged forgery and of the charge of receiving stolen property. Campo was sentenced to the state prison, the terms on each count to run concurrently.

A résumé of some of the facts in the case follows: at about 3 :15 a.m. on May 13, 1967, Elvin Mayer locked up his bar, The Spur, and left. When he returned at about 11 a.m. that same day he ascertained that the cigarette machine had been broken into and that about $50 was missing in addition to a radio, a substantial amount of whisky, á microphone, some blank checks and a Fotron electric camera, serial number 33830. Mayer kept pads of blank checks in a desk drawer at the bar, the checks containing the name of the establishment, Mayer’s name, the address and a telephone number in the upper left corner.

Mayer testified that 5 checks (exh. 2-4) were within the group of checks missing from his office. One of these checks was made out to Campo and Campo’s signature appeared upon the back. The other checks were made out to a Mr. Lockhart and his signature appeared on the back of such checks. Mayer had not signed any of such checks and he had not given anyone permission to sign for him. Campo never had worked for Mayer or Mayer’s wife and there was never any indebtedness by Mayer to Campo. Mayer identified two photographs of his camera with serial number 33830 as the camera which was taken from his bar.

Mrs. Sara Leath owned and managed a bar known as Sara’s Place in May 1967. Campo and Lockhart were customers. Campo came into Sara’s Place on May 13, 1967, with the camera taken from Mayer’s and told Mrs. Leath that the camera was his. On two different occasions Campo made a loan from Mrs. Leath and put up the camera as collateral. On May 13, 1967, Campo presented a check to Mrs. Leath for cashing. The check was one of the group taken from Mayer’s desk. According to Lockhart he made out the check for