People v. Hope

62 Cal. 291, 1882 Cal. LEXIS 736
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 9, 1882
DocketNo. 10,772
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 62 Cal. 291 (People v. Hope) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Hope, 62 Cal. 291, 1882 Cal. LEXIS 736 (Cal. 1882).

Opinion

Sharpstein, J.:

The question presented by the first point in appellant’s brief, as we view it, does not differ materially from that upon which this Court passed in People v. Smith, 59 Cal. 365, and we are satisfied with the views therein expressed.

We do not think that the bare fact of a juror having visited, during the trial, the premises where it was alleged that the defendant had committed the crime of burglary, was a sufficient ground for discharging the jury. From the facts before us we are unable to see how the case of the defendant could possibly have been prejudiced thereby.

For the purpose of proving that the defendant had burglariously entered the building described in the information, with the intent to commit larceny therein, witnesses were introduced by the prosecution, who testified in substance, that in consequence of the discovery of supposed indications of a design on the part of some person or persons to force an opening into the vault of the bank located in said building, certain police officers had been stationed where they could readily detect any one who should enter said building, on the night of the arrest of the defendant. One of said officers testified that about nine o’clock p. M., he saw the defendant and another person enter said building; and another officer, who was stationed inside of the building, testified that about the same time he heard parties coming up the stairs in said building, [294]*294and soon afterwards he saw the defendant on the second floor of it inside a doorway leading to a closet, where he was arrested. This witness further testified that before he became aware of the entrance of any other persons than himself and two other officers, who had been stationed inside the building with him, he inspected the closets on the second floor and found that the doors of them were locked. But that after the entrance of persons other than himself and said officers, he found the door of one of the closets “sprung open, and behind the door close to the partition * * * a large sledge hammer wrapped in paper and also a handle wrapped in papers,” which were not in the hall when the witness first inspected it. A further inspection of the premises revealed the following facts: In a closet over the bank vault a trap-door about two feet wide and two and a half feet long had been sawed out of the floor, and then fastened down with screws so that it might be opened without making much, if any, noise. On opening it the witnesses found beneath it and on the top of the vault a large quantity of tools, and a hole in the vault of the depth of two feet which had been made by the removal of bricks, which had been deposited between the walls of the room and the vault. The tools found on the vault were adapted to the kind of work that was evidently being prosecuted upon it, and other tools of a similar character were found in the defendant’s trunk in a room occupied by him in San Francisco. To the introduction of the tools found upon the vault and to those found in the defendant’s trunk objections were made by the defendant’s counsel. The objections were overruled and exceptions were taken, upon which we are asked to pass.

“ The implements found in the excavation over the vault,” say the appellant’s counsel, “ were improperly admitted in evidence because there was no evidence showing or tending to show that any of them belonged to or had been in the possession of the defendant, or were in any way connected with him.” If such evidence was a necessary prerequisite to the introduction of the implements to which counsel refer, their exception was doubtless well taken. But these implements were not offered in evidence until the witness, by-whom they were discovered, had testified, without objection, to the fact of having found implements of a similar description, “ in the [295]*295excavation over the vault,” and if that testimony was admissible, of which we entertain no doubt, we are unable to conceive upon what ground the production, identification, and introduction of the implements themselves in evidence could be objectionable.

The objection to the admission in evidence of the implements found in the appellant’s trunk is based on the ground that “ they were not used in the perpetration of, or in the attempt to perpetrate, the offense charged.” And that “ if they were burglars’ tools then they were evidence of another crime.” There was evidence, however, which tended to prove that burglars’ tools had been “ used in the perpetration, or in the attempt to perpetrate, the offense charged,” and that, coupled with the fact “ that the defendant was in the vicinity at or about the time the burglary was committed ” furnished a sufficient ground for the introduction of evidence to show “ the possession by the defendant, at or about that time, of corresponding tools.” (People v. Winters, 29 Cal. 658.)

Among the articles exhibited in the presence of the jury was “ a cylindrical steel bar about half an inch in diameter and about eight inches long, which he (the witness exhibiting it) said he had made for the purpose of screwing upon it the said coupling or sockets ”—one of which was found in the hole over the bank vault and the other in the trunk of the defendant. The Court, against the objection of the counsel of appellant, permitted the witness “ to make experiments in the presence of the jury with the couplings or sockets attached to said cylindrical bar.” The ground of the objection was that the cylindrical bar was not in evidence. It had not been formally offered in evidence, and the counsel for the prosecution stated that they did not intend to offer it in evidence. But the witness had exhibited it on the witness stand, and had stated that he had it made for the purpose of screwing “ said coupling or sockets ” upon it. The object of screwing “ said coupling or sockets ” upon it is not stated, nor to us apparent. Still, in support of the correctness of the ruling of the Court below we are bound to presume, unless the contrary appears, that the object was a legitimate one. Perhaps the use to which the coupling or sockets might be put, could be made more clear by screwing them upon said cylindrical bar. [296]*296It was not objected that the witness was not an expert, and we are unable to determine from anything before us that it was not necessary for him to use said cylindrical bar in order to elucidate and illustrate clearly the character of the “ coupling or sockets ” which had been admitted in evidence. It was not only proper, but of the first importance, that the prosecution should show that the implements found on the vault, and in the appellant’s trunk, were “ burglars’ tools.” And we must presume that it was for that or some other legitimate object that the witness was permitted to experiment with some of them in the presence of the jury, and that he was allowed to use an instrument of his own for the purpose of making the experiment better understood than it otherwise would be. The objection to the question put to the witness Aiken was properly overruled.

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Bluebook (online)
62 Cal. 291, 1882 Cal. LEXIS 736, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-hope-cal-1882.