Pena v. People

363 P.2d 672, 147 Colo. 253, 1961 Colo. LEXIS 506
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedJuly 17, 1961
Docket19665
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 363 P.2d 672 (Pena v. People) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pena v. People, 363 P.2d 672, 147 Colo. 253, 1961 Colo. LEXIS 506 (Colo. 1961).

Opinions

Mr. Justice McWilliams

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Pena and Huerta were jointly charged in a four count information with (1) burglary of the warehouse building of Gower Delivery Service, Inc., a corporation; (2) conspiracy to commit this burglary; (3) larceny of a motor vehicle, namely a Chevrolet truck, belonging to Gower Delivery Service, Inc.; and (4) conspiracy to commit this larceny of a motor vehicle. Defendants pled not guilty to all counts of the information, and demanded trial to a jury. Upon trial, at the conclusion of the People’s evidence, defendants moved to dismiss on the grounds that the evidence was insufficient to permit submission of the case to the jury. This motion was de[255]*255nied as to the first two counts of the information, namely burglary and conspiracy to commit the same; whereupon, for some unexplained reason, the district attorney voluntarily elected to withdraw counts three and four, charging larceny of a motor vehicle and conspiracy to commit the same. Defendants offered no evidence in their own behalf, and the jury found both defendants guilty of burglary and conspiracy. Motion for a new trial filed in behalf of defendants was denied and each was thereafter sentenced to a term of not less than four nor more than six years in the state penitentiary. By writ of error defendants now seek reversal of their respective judgments of conviction.

The main assignment of error is the alleged insufficiency of the evidence to support the charge of burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary, and it is specifically urged that the trial court committed error in failing to grant defendants’ motion to dismiss interposed at the conclusion of the People’s evidence. This motion should have been granted, say defendants, and, afortiori, the ensuing judgments of conviction cannot now be permitted to stand and should therefore be set aside.

We now hold that this contention of defendants is without merit and that the evidence is legally sufficient to sustain the verdicts of guilty returned by the jury. However, to demonstrate such sufficiency we deem it necessary to outline in some detail the evidence adduced by the People.

At the outset it is conceded that all of the evidence tending to tie these defendants into the burglary of the warehouse of Gower Delivery Service, Inc., is circumstantial in nature. However, circumstantial evidence is not always inferior in quality nor is it necessarily relegated to a “second rate” status. In Martinez v. People, 63 Colo. 347, 166 Pac. 241, we said: “ * * * the evidence is, as mentioned above, circumstantial only. This fact is, of course, not sufficient to justify a reversal of the judgments as circumstantial evidence may be, and frequently [256]*256is, most convincing and satisfactory. * * * ” Also, in Ruff v. People, 78 Colo. 475, 242 Pac. 633, it is said that in any criminal case material, relevant and competent evidence sufficient to convince the jury is necessary to sustain a conviction, “nothing more, nothing less,” and that “circumstantial evidence is as competent and potent in such a case as any other.” The test is still whether the facts and circumstances are of such quantity and quality as to legally justify a jury in determining guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If such be the case, then this Court should not, indeed cannot, set aside the solemn findings of the trier of the facts. See also Beery v. People, 104 Colo. 70, 89 P. (2d) 534; Gonzales v. People, 128 Colo. 522, 264 P. (2d) 508; Falcon v. People, 143 Colo. 173, 352 P. (2d) 310.

Proceeding then to a consideration of the evidence, it was established that Gower Delivery Service, Inc., a corporation, is engaged in the general delivery business in the Denver area and has its office at 2811 Walnut Street, Denver. Located at this address is one large building, described as of the “warehouse” type, in which “we store the trucks and company merchandise of various types.” Five trucks comprise the fleet used by the company in its operation, and included in this number is a 1953, % ton, Chevrolet truck. The company’s weekly business operation ends every Saturday around noon and the drivers, after completing their deliveries for Saturday morning, customarily return their trucks to the warehouse where they are kept over the weekend. On Saturday, October 17, 1959, Clarence Gower, who is an officer of Gower Delivery Service, Inc., stated that he left the business premises at 2811 Walnut Street at about 10:30 A.M. He testified that he secured the premises but that as of that time only one of the five company owned trucks was in the warehouse. Other trucks, including the 1953' Chevrolet truck, were still out on their deliveries. However, as was noted supra, the obvious inference to be gained from Clarence Gower’s testimony [257]*257is that it was the practice to keep these delivery trucks in the warehouse over the weekend. It was further established that although Gower locked the premises when he departed at 10:30 o’clock in the morning that one of his employees, Knippel, also had a key for the warehouse and that he could admit the trucks to the warehouse as each came in from its delivery trip.

Digressing momentarily, defendants attempt to make much.-pf the fact that Knippel was not endorsed nor called as a witness by the People and that there was accordingly no direct evidence of the eye witness variety placing the 1953 Chevrolet truck in. the warehouse as of Saturday noon, October 17, 1959. It is argued that because of this omission the entire case of the People collapses. This is oversimplification and results from a failure to take into consideration all the circumstances of the case.

Continuing then with a review of the evidence introduced by the People, at about 1:45 A.M. on Monday, October 19, 1959, officers Oman and Pratt noticed a truck being driven in an erratic fashion on the Valley Highway and accordingly gave chase. Though the officers sounded their siren and turned on their red light, the truck did not stop and at the first opportunity turned off Valley Highway, but thereafter was quickly brought to a stop by a dead end street. Officer Oman testified that he saw a person emerge from the right-hand side of the truck and he pursued. Without losing sight of such person, officer Oman quickly apprehended him. He was identified as Huerta. Officer Pratt in like fashion gave pursuit to the driver of the truck, who emerged from the left-hand side of the truck, and he without delay apprehended the driver, who turned out to be Pena. Both Huerta and Pena offered resistance, but such was overcome by the officers who effected the arrest. In this connection both Pena and Huerta were carrying knives and the testimony was that Huerta pulled his knife on the officer in resisting arrest. Huerta had in his posses[258]*258sion, inter alia, six gum balls with the trade name “FORD” imprinted on each and a tape of the type customarily used in an adding machine. The truck from whence these two defendants fled was the 1953 Chevrolet truck belonging to Gower Delivery Service, Inc., bearing appropriate lettering to that effect on its sides. When questioned by the police the defendants denied everything, stating that neither knew the other and that they were only sleeping in the alley when aroused and for no good reason arrested.

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Edwards v. People
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Stevenson v. People
367 P.2d 339 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1961)
Pena v. People
363 P.2d 672 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1961)

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Bluebook (online)
363 P.2d 672, 147 Colo. 253, 1961 Colo. LEXIS 506, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pena-v-people-colo-1961.