People v. Collins

123 P.2d 43, 50 Cal. App. 2d 281, 1942 Cal. App. LEXIS 924
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 2, 1942
DocketCrim. 2199
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 123 P.2d 43 (People v. Collins) 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. Collins, 123 P.2d 43, 50 Cal. App. 2d 281, 1942 Cal. App. LEXIS 924 (Cal. Ct. App. 1942).

Opinions

KNIGHT, J.

The appellant was charged with the crime of burglary and five previous convictions of felony. He entered a plea of not guilty to the burglary charge, and denied having suffered the previous convictions. During trial two of the latter charges were dismissed, and the jury found him guilty of first degree burglary, and that the charges involving the three remaining previous convictions were true. He was sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison, and this appeal was taken from the judgment and the order denying his motion for a new trial.

It appears from the evidence that about 4 a. m. on July [283]*2834, 1940, Bernard Schwalm, a college student residing in Berkeley, was awakened by a noise in his bedroom. He sat up in bed, looked toward the window and saw the figure of a tall, thin man, disappear hurriedly from the room. Schwalm got out of bed, and, barefooted and clad in pajamas, pursued the burglar for several blocks, in and out of backyards, through alleys and along the streets. Shortly after the chase started he caught up with the burglar, who stopped, turned around, and facing Schwalm said, “Stay away ... or I’ll kill you.” The burglar then turned and ran. Schwalm pulled a picket from the fence, continued, the chase, and when the burglar paused to open a gate Schwalm broke the picket over the burglar’s head, but it did not stop him in his flight. About this time a young man named Dean joined Schwalm in the pursuit, and succeeded in overtaking the burglar, whereupon the burglar stopped momentarily, faced Dean, and calling him a vile name displayed a knife in a threatening manner. Dean then left to summon the police, but Schwalm continued the chase. The burglar finally ran into a backyard surrounded by a ten-foot fence, and upon reaching the fence turned around, faced Schwalm, and in a menacing manner raised his arm. Schwalm having meanwhile picked up two milk bottles, hurled them at the burglar. The second bottle struck the burglar on the jaw, felling him to the ground. He lay there for a minute or two, then arose slowly and the chase was on again. After running two or three more blocks the burglar stopped, and as related by Schwalm the following conversation took place: “He said ‘Let me alone,’ and I said, ‘No, not until I find out what you took from me.’ He said, ‘All I got was your wallet, and it’s back there where you knocked me down. ’ . . . I said I had $12.00 in my wallet and I wanted that, and he said, ‘If I give you $12.00 out of my own pocket will you let me go ? ’ And I agreed. ’ ’ Thereupon the burglar laid $12 in currency on the pavement and hastily walked away. Later Schwalm found his empty wallet where the burglar said he had dropped it. It was dawn when the chase started, but Schwalm testified that it was “completely light” before it ended, so that each time the burglar stopped his features were clearly discernible. Subsequently Schwalm examined more than two thousand pictures in the police files and picked the photograph of appellant as being that of the burglar. In December of the same year appellant was apprehended in southern California and returned to [284]*284Berkeley, where Schwalm and Dean, at different times and out of the presence of each other, positively identified appellant in a line-up of ten or more persons, as being the burglar. In all respects he fitted the description previously furnished the police by Schwalm and Dean; moreover they again identified him at the trial as being the burglar.

The fact that a burglary was committed was not disputed, but appellant, testifying in his own behalf, claimed he was in Los Angeles at the time of the commission of the crime. However, he was unable to state where he was then living, or name any persons with whom he came in contact, nor did he produce any witness’ or establish any circumstance to corroborate his asserted alibi. Pie admitted having served the three prior convictions, and that his true name was Truman Thomas Crowley, the name" set forth in the records of said prior convictions. The first was obtained in 1922 in Kansas, the charge being grand larceny “and escape from jail”; the second was for burglary, committed in 1933 in Missouri; and the third was for an attempted burglary, in Kansas in 1936.

Appellant makes no point that the evidence is insufficient to support the jury’s verdict, but as grounds of appeal urges misconduct on the part of the prosecuting officer, and that the trial court erred in sustaining an objection to a question propounded to appellant on direct examination. It is our conclusion that no ground for reversal has been established.

The first point arises out of the following situation: By the testimony of a police inspector of the Berkeley Police Department who brought appellant from Glendale where he was arrested to Alameda County for trial, the People sought to prove a series of admissions which it was claimed appellant had made to the police inspector, and one of the questions propounded to the witness by the prosecuting officer was whether appellant stated “what his occupation was.” Appellant’s counsel objected to the question upon the ground that it was incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. The objection was overruled, and the witness answered in the affirmative. Thereupon, after fixing the time and place of the conversation and the persons present, the witness was asked: “What did you say and what did he say in regard to what his occupation was -” Appellant’s counsel again objected on the same general grounds; the objection was overruled, and the witness replied: “I asked him where he had [285]*285been last employed and he told me that he was unable to work, he had been a thief all his life, since 9 years old.” Appellant’s counsel asked that “that all go out,” and “that the jury be instructed to disregard it,” adding, “I am going to ask for a mistrial, it couldn’t be responsive, it couldn’t under any circumstances. The district attorney must have known the answer. It couldn’t do anything but prevent the defendant from receiving a fair and impartial trial, it’s done deliberately. The Court: Motion granted. The answer may be stricken out.” Appellant’s counsel thereupon asked the court to declare a mistrial, saying he cited “the remark” as prejudicial misconduct. Following the denial of the motion for mistrial appellant’s counsel stated: “At this time I am going to ask the Court to admonish the jury they are not to be biased or prejudiced by that statement of the officer and absolutely that they are not to draw any unfavorable inference therefrom. The Court: The jury will be instructed at the proper time to disregard any testimony that has been stricken out.” Such an instruction was subsequently given in the following words: “You are hereby further instructed that you are not to consider for any purpose any testimony or evidence which has been struck out by the Court, nor the offer of any evidence which was not admitted by the Court. ’ ’

As will be noted from the foregoing, appellant’s complaint that he was prevented from receiving a fair trial was based upon the fact that the witness included in his answer a prejudicial statement not responsive to the question propounded to him by the prosecuting attorney. But as will be noted also, on appellant’s motion the trial court immediately struck out the entire answer and later instructed the jury that testimony so stricken was not to be considered by the jury for any purpose. In that state of the record it cannot be presumed that the jury disobeyed such instruction.

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Related

United States v. Johnson
3 C.M.A. 447 (United States Court of Military Appeals, 1953)
People v. Collins
123 P.2d 43 (California Court of Appeal, 1942)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
123 P.2d 43, 50 Cal. App. 2d 281, 1942 Cal. App. LEXIS 924, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-collins-calctapp-1942.