People v. Leary

172 P.2d 34, 28 Cal. 2d 727, 1946 Cal. LEXIS 256
California Supreme Court·Decided August 16, 1946·No. Crim. 4652·Published·Cited by 12 cases

Opinions

CARTER, J.

Appellant Crain and his codefendant Dan Leary were charged by information 10Ó192 with the following crimes: First count, the murder in November, 1.944, in Los Angeles of Frank 0 cello; second count, attempted robbery [729]*729of the same victim; third, fourth, and fifth counts, the respective robberies in Los Angeles on December 9, 1944, of Nathan Back, Joseph B. Mathews, and Ellen Landers. Each defendant was also charged with two prior convictions.

Crain pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity, and denied the prior convictions. Leary entered like pleas. The two defendants, represented by separate counsel, were tried jointly. The jury found Crain guilty of murder as charged in the first count of the information and made no recommendation as to penalty. He was found guilty as charged on the other four counts. During the course of the trial he admitted the first but denied the second prior conviction. The jury found the latter prior conviction to be true. On the insanity plea a verdict was returned to the effect that he was sane at the time of the commission of the several offenses. The record does not show what verdicts were rendered as to defendant Leary. An appeal by him is being separately prosecuted.

Another information, 100187, was filed against Crain, Leary, and one Hardeson, charging four robberies committed in Los Angeles on December 15th. These charges were consolidated for trial with those in information 100192, except that a severance was had as to Hardeson. No appeal was taken from the judgments of conviction entered under information 100187, and the evidence in the present transcript relating to those crimes will not be considered.

Both Crain and Leary made motions for new trial, which were denied. Crain was sentenced under count one to pay the extreme penalty, and under the other four counts to serve the term prescribed by law, the latter sentences to run consecutively to each other and concurrently with the sentence under the first count.

On his appeal Crain urges the insufficiency of the evidence to support the verdicts against him. However, he qualifies his contention by the statement that “appellant is . . . not taking the position on this appeal that the evidence demands a reversal of counts IV and V. But the appellant urges that it is insufficient to sustain the verdicts and judgment of conviction as to Count I, the murder, Count II, the attempted robbery of Prank O cello, and Count III, the robbery of the place of Nathan Back on December 9th.”

Crain, Leary, and Hardeson were acquaintances of many years standing. In 1931 they were in trouble together; Crain [730]*730was sent to San Quentin, Leary to reform school, and Hardeson was released on probation. Shortly before the occurrences here involved, Crain, who was out on parole, visited Leary and persuaded him to again embark on a career of crime. Leary is taller than Crain and is afflicted with a continual trembling of parts of the body which markedly increases in times of excitement and is due to the chronic disease of chorea, causing muscular tremors and twitehings. The manner in which the men dressed, the difference in their height, and Leary’s affliction were aids to identification, so that in addition to testimony of positive identification, a number of witnesses made partial identifications or testified to bodily resemblances.

The evidence bearing upon the crimes of murder and attempted robbery charged in counts one and two shows in substance the following: On November 15, 1944, an automobile belonging to Leary was parked in an alley which intersects 47th Street near Western Avenue, Los Angeles. Leary was in the driver’s seat and Mrs. Leary occupied the back seat. After some conversation at the parked car Crain and Leary went to a liquor store at the corner of 47th Street and Western Avenue. Crain, armed with a .32 caliber revolver, forced the owner of the store, Frank Ocello, into the rear storeroom where Mr. Linden, an agent of the Department of Internal Revenue, was working. Crain fired one shot at the agent and missed. Crain then turned Ocello back into the main store. The agent heard voices in the store, the crashing of bottles and two shots. He ran from the back entrance of the store and encountered Crain, who with Leary was running along 47th Street toward the alley. Crain again fired at the agent and missed. Ocello was in pursuit of Crain and Leary, but turned back crying out that he had been shot. Crain, Leary and Leary’s wife escaped in the automobile. Ocello was taken to the hospital, where a .32 caliber bullet was removed from his back and other surgical operations were performed. He died two weeks later from peritonitis resulting from the gunshot wound.

Identification testimony was given and the occurrence was described in part by agent Linden, by Mrs. McDermott, who was washing the window of her upper flat over the alley when the automobile parked almost beneath it, by a Mrs. Bryan who was visiting in the lower flat, by Mr. White, the owner of a paint shop on the southwest corner of the intersection, and by Mrs. Ocello, who conducted a pet shop next door to the paint shop.

[731]*731On the evening of December 9th the three robberies were committed which are the subject of counts three to five of information 100192. Crain claims to have been so intoxicated at the time as to have no clear recollection of these events. On December 14th Crain’s home was searched and a suit of clothes was found which was identified by Nathan Rack as having been taken from his store by Hardeson in the robbery of December 9th.

On the evening of December 14th Crain and Leary escaped from the rear of Leary’s home while officers were being admitted at the front door. They climbed into the parked car of a Mr. Gillespie and, by threatening him with guns, forced him to drive them some distance away. On the following day, December 15th, the four robberies were committed for which convictions were had under information 100187, and which netted the perpetrators considerable cash. Crain remembers committing robberies on that day but claims to have been drinking a great deal.

On the evening of the 15th Crain, Leary and Hardeson made a down payment on a LaSalle car bearing license number 08 Z 332. On the 16th a highway patrol officer received a radio message to watch for a LaSalle bearing that number. The car was sighted, the highway blockaded, and several officers shot at the car as it sought to evade the blockade by making a full turn in the road. Leary, slightly wounded, came from behind the driver’s seat, and Crain and Hardeson from the other side of the car. Over the embankment on that side the officers found two loaded .38 caliber revolvers.

On the way to the sheriff’s office at Newhall, in response to a question by Officer Barrett, “Well, what do you suppose will happen to you now,” Crain replied, “Well, they are going to try and pin a murder rap on me; I can smell the gas chamber now. ’ ’ At Newhall Officer Hurst told Crain that Mrs. Leary had been taken into custody on December 14th and on December 15th had made a statement which was reduced to writing, saying among other things that when Crain and Leary returned to the automobile from the liquor store, Crain told her that he had shot Ocello. The officer remarked that he did not think that Mrs. Leary was guilty of anything.

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People v. Leary, 172 P.2d 34, 28 Cal. 2d 727, 1946 Cal. LEXIS 256 (Cal. 1946).

172 P.2d 34 (People v. Leary) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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