People v. Buyle

68 P.2d 268, 20 Cal. App. 2d 650, 1937 Cal. App. LEXIS 857
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 3, 1937
DocketCrim. No. 1551
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 68 P.2d 268 (People v. Buyle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Buyle, 68 P.2d 268, 20 Cal. App. 2d 650, 1937 Cal. App. LEXIS 857 (Cal. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

PLUMMER, J.

The appellant in this case was tried before the court sitting without a jury, and found guilty of an offense based upon section 5 of the act known as Act No. 2433, Deering’s General Laws of California, page 1161. From the judgment following this conviction, the denial of his motion for new trial, and denial of motion in arrest of judgment, the appellant appeals.

As no appeal lies from the denial of a motion in arrest of judgment, that portion of the attempted appeal may be here dismissed.

[652]*652Section 5 of the act referred to, so far as the offense of the appellant is concerned, relates to the reckless and malicious possession of certain explosives on the highway, where people pass and repass in the county of Stanislaus.

The offense with which the appellant was charged and convicted is really a companion case with that of People v. Fitzgerald et al., reported in 14 Cal. App. (2d) 180 [58 Pac. (2d) 718], to which reference is hereby made for a more detailed statement than is thought necessary to be made in this opinion.

The appellant urges as grounds for reversal, the unconstitutionality of sections 5 and 6 of the act referred to, and also, the insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the judgment of conviction, for the reason that the appellant did not have actual, physical or manual possession of the dynamite referred to in the testimony; that such actual, manual and physical possession is shown by the testimony to have been in one of the other occupants of the Nash sedan in which the appellant was riding, whose name was Fitzgerald.

It appears that upon the submission of the cause to the court for decision the court remarked that he would prefer to omit from consideration, and had done so as far as it was humanly possible to do so, the testimony of the witness Scrudder. Upon this statement the appellant urges in effect that the transcript must be read and the cause considered as though the testimony of Scrudder were eliminated therefrom. This conclusion, however, does not follow. No motion to strike out the testimony of the witness Scrudder was made, nor is there anything in the record which indicates the improbability or untruthfulness of any portion of Scrudder’s testimony. While this court is not called upon to express any opinion as to the character of the witness known as “James F. Scrudder”, it is due to him for us to state that we have carefully compared his testimony with the statement made by the appellant to the district attorney of the county of Stanislaus, and others, on the night of his arrest, and if the statement then and there made by the appellant is true, then and in that case the testimony of the witness Scrudder is likewise substantially correct. In other words, the statement made by the appellant corroborates the testimony of the witness Scrudder and the testimony of the witness Scrudder corroborates the statement made by the appellant. We may here add that the witness Scrudder was only a feigned [653]*653accomplice, and therefore his testimony is not subject to the limitations contained in section 1111 of the Penal Code. (People v. Keseling, 35 Cal. App. 501 [170 Pac. 627].) The testimony of the witness Scrudder and the statement of the appellant show that a number of persons, most of whom were defendants in the case of People v. Fitzgerald, supra, met in a restaurant in San Francisco; that two cars were used to convey the party to the town of Patterson, in the county of Stanislaus; that two packages of dynamite were carried, one package in a car known as the “Chrysler”, the other in a ear known as the “sedan”, in which the appellant was an occupant; that the sticks of dynamite were wrapped in newspapers ; that the appellant carried upon his person and inside of his shirt, certain fuses; that when the party in the Nash sedan reached a point near its intended destination in the county of Stanislaus, and being stopped by certain officers, disposed of both dynamite and the fuses; that the appellant himself disposed of the fuses that had been carried upon his person.

The only difference in the testimony between Scrudder and the appellant as to the dynamite carried in the Nash sedan is that Scrudder testified that the dynamite was personally carried by an occupant of the Nash sedan, named Fitzgerald. The testimony of Scrudder and also of the appellant is to the effect that the purpose of the trip to Stanislaus County was to get some “finks” (strike breakers).

After reading every word of the testimony in this case, we find that a fair summary thereof is contained in the brief of the respondent, which we here set forth, to wit:

On the evening of April 20, 1935, two investigators employed in the independent detective and patrol service, named Alfred B. Hughel and Sidney Lewis, respectively, were patroling the highway between the towns of Westley and Patterson in the county of Stanislaus, looking for a car bearing license No. 5J2930. The car, a Nash sedan, was found proceeding towards Patterson. They followed the car until it turned from the highway on a dirt road where it parked. The investigators proceeded on towards and into Patterson without stopping. On the way they observed a Chrysler coupe parked on the highway just north of the town. At Patterson Hughel notified certain other men, including Constable Kirk and Chief of Police Busingdal. This was approximately 11 o’clock at night. They then went back up [654]*654the highway to where the Chrysler was still parked, stopped; and ordered the occupants out, and turned them over to the constable and the chief of police, who had followed them from Patterson. The investigators then got into their car and proceeded up the highway towards the side road where the Nash sedan had been parked. As they proceeded up the highway they met the Nash sedan coming south towards the place where the Chrysler was parked. They passed the Nash, turned around, and followed it a ways and then drove up alongside and Hughel jumped to the running-board of the Nash, and ordered the occupants to stop, which they did. Afterwards, under Hughel's direction, they proceeded to the Chrysler car where all of the men from the two cars were lined up. The defendant was in the Nash car occupying a front seat with one Marchant and Scrudder. Scrudder was driving, Marchant sat in the middle, and appellant sat on the right side of the car.

The ears were immediately searched while the men were lined up on the highway and a package containing five sticks of forty per cent strength dynamite and one stick of sixty per cent strength dynamite were found in the Chrysler car.

A package, containing two lengths of fuses, one of which was capped, was also taken from the Chrysler car.

About 5 o’clock the following morning, right after daybreak, Hughel and Lewis returned to the place, and upon searching through the grass found on the side of the road where the Nash had been parked, which was the opposite side from that on which the Chrysler was parked, a package containing six sticks of dynamite and two rolls of fuse, one of them capped. The dynamite in this package also consisted of five sticks of forty per cent strength and one stick of sixty per cent strength.

The men from the two ears were taken the same night of the arrest to the county jail, arriving there about 1 o’clock, where they were questioned by the district attorney. The defendant’s statement is set forth in the transcript.

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Bluebook (online)
68 P.2d 268, 20 Cal. App. 2d 650, 1937 Cal. App. LEXIS 857, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-buyle-calctapp-1937.