People v. Harper

269 Cal. App. 2d 221, 74 Cal. Rptr. 859, 1969 Cal. App. LEXIS 1637

• Court: California Court of Appeal
• Decided: January 28, 1969
• Docket: Crim. 14485
• Status: Published

Opinions

STEPHENS, Acting P. J.

By information, defendant was charged with a violation of section 459 of the Penal Code (burglary). Defendant pleaded not guilty, waived jury trial, and submitted the cause on the preliminary hearing transcript plus his testimony. The defendant was found not guilty of the charge of burglary, but guilty of “a lesser and necessarily included offense in Section 459 Penal Code,” criminal trespass, in violation of section 602, subdivision (l) of the Penal Code.¹ Appeal is from the judgment.

We need not state the facts since reversal is required for error of law, the crime of criminal trespass. (§ 692, subd. (1), Pen. Code)² not being a lesser included offense³ in a charge of violation of section 459 of the Penal Code.⁴

Criminal trespass requires the occupation of real property or structures, as well as the entry. To occupy means a non-transient, continuous type of possession. (People v. Wilkinson (App. Dept., Superior Court) 248 Cal.App.2d Supp. 906, 910 [56 Cal.Rptr. 261].) It needs no authority to convince us that a burglar has no intention except the most transient of trespasses. There is a further element in Penal Code section 602, subdivision (Z) which cannot be an element of Penal Code section 459, and that is that criminal trespass may be upon vacant property, while burglary is limited to the entry of a structure or other specified enclosure.⁵

The judgment is reversed.

Reppy, J., concurred.

1 The finding of defendant guilty of a lesser included offense necessarily constitutes a finding of not guilty of the charged offense. (In re Hess, 45 Cal.2d 171, 176 [288 P.2d 5]; People v. Harris, 191 Cal.App.2d 754, 759 [12 Cal.Rptr. 916].)

2 Penal Code section 602, subdivision (l) : " Every person who willfully commits any trespass by either: . . . (V) Entering and occupying real property or structures of any kind without the consent of the owners, his agent, or the person in lawful possession thereof; ... is guilty of a misdemeanor. ’ ’

3 A necessarily included offense is that which occurs when an offense cannot be committed without necessarily committing another offense. (People v. Greer, 30 Cal.2d 589 [184 P.2d 512].)

4 Penal Code section 459: “Every person who enters any house, room, apartment, tenement, shop, warehouse, store, mill, barn, stable, outhouse or other building, tent, vessel, railroad car, trailer coach as defined by the Vehicle Code, vehicle as defined by said code when the doors of such vehicle are locked, aircraft as defined by the Harbors and Navigation Code, mine or any underground portion thereof, with intent to commit grand or petit larceny or any felony is guilty of burglary. ’ ’

5 Cf. People v. Lopez, 249 Cal.App.2d 93, 103 [57 Cal.Rptr. 441]; People v. Mitchell, 239 Cal.App.2d 318, 328 [48 Cal.Rptr. 533]; People v. Brown, 236 Cal.App.2d Supp. 915, 920 [47 Cal.Rptr. 662]; People v. Harris, 191 Cal.App.2d 754, 758 [12 Cal.Rptr. 916].