People v. Lindsey

188 Cal. App. 2d 471, 10 Cal. Rptr. 488, 1961 Cal. App. LEXIS 2448
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 25, 1961
DocketCrim. 7224
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 188 Cal. App. 2d 471 (People v. Lindsey) 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. Lindsey, 188 Cal. App. 2d 471, 10 Cal. Rptr. 488, 1961 Cal. App. LEXIS 2448 (Cal. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

ASHBURN, J.

Convicted of armed robbery, defendant appeals. He makes no claim of insufficiency of the evidence but argues for reversible error through (1) receipt of a confession obtained by “psychological coercion and duress,” and (2) receipt of evidence of other crimes committed by him.

Respondent’s proof shows that in the early morning of October 17, 1959, defendant accosted a sailor, Donald H. Largent, who was walking on Anaheim Boulevard in Long Beach, and asked for a light. Largent said, ‘ ‘ I don’t smoke, ’ ’ whereupon defendant told him to stop and came running up with a shotgun which was pointed at him; keeping it in this position defendant marched Largent down the street and another man appeared, putting a rag around his face as a mask. Largent said to defendant, “ if it’s money you want I ’ll give it to you, ’ ’ and defendant said, “you do just that.” Being handed some money defendant inquired if that was all the victim had; the other man went through the sailor’s jumper pocket, found more money and said, “Oh, you are trying to hold out on me,” and told him to lie down on the grass; while he was doing so the two men took, his shoes off and searched and asked for his money belt. As he started to raise himself defendant hit him on the side of the face, saying, “I told you not to look”; first a hit with the fist and then several jabs on the side of the head with the gun, and “I’ll blow your head off.” About $15 in all was taken from the sailor. He was ordered to turn around, walk up the street and not turn back. This he did until he thought he was out of range and then he ran and with the help of a motorist soon reported the incident to the police. About a week later he saw defendant in a police line-up and exclaimed, “that’s the man that held me up”; defendant, within hearing distance and not behind a partition or screen, said nothing.

The State’s showing as to a confession was as follows. Defendant having been arrested on October 26, 1959, he was interviewed by police on the morning of the 27th, at which time he denied perpetration or knowledge of the robbery. After his identification by Largent, Officers Wiggins, Baxter and Sizemore talked again with defendant; at first he denied robbing the sailor and the police told him; “ ‘Now; the man *474 has identified you, told you to your face that you were the man, we have the shotgun that you used.’ And he says, ‘Yes, I’m the man that held him up.’ We asked him if there was another person with him and he said there was. We asked him if he cared to name him and he said that he didn’t. ’ ’ Defendant was then taken into another room where a stenographer took the conversation in shorthand and later transcribed it. Upon this transcription defendant made a marginal note, “not sure of date, ’ ’ and signed the same.

He therein said that he and another colored boy robbed the man who had identified him at the line-up, that this occurred at Anaheim and Elm about 2:30 a. m. on Saturday, October 17th; that they used a 12-gauge double barreled shotgun which was loaded at the time; they took not over two or three dollars; he had the gun over his arm, sticking up, when he approached the victim, cradled in his arm; they did make the victim lie down on the grass; defendant had been drinking quite a little that night and his memory was not good; he identified the gun when shown it by police. “Q. Has there been any force or violence used on your person to induce you to make this statement? A. No. Q. Any police officer beat on you, abuse you or strike you? A. No. Q. You have been treated all right—we have treated you all right, have we not ? A. Yes. Q. Has there been any promise of immunity or reward held out to you to induce you to make this statement? In other words, have we promised you that you wouldn’t be prosecuted or you wouldn’t go to jail for this particular crime? A. No.” Officer Wiggins testified that all statements made by defendant were freely and voluntarily made.

The phrase “for this particular crime” is the fulcrum on which appellant raises his claim of mental duress. The officer testified that there was a promise made to defendant “that two robberies that he told us about after this robbery would not be filed against him.” Under questioning by the court it was developed that this promise was made after defendant had told the officers he had committed the robbery now under consideration by this court. On cross-examination the witness said that defendant in the second conversation admitted two additional robberies when charged with them. “I told him that if there was any more robberies that he committed, if he wanted to get them all together and clean them up, that we would not file only the one on him here.” Also that the talk about the other offenses occurred prior to the time that defendant gave the statement which was transcribed. Again: *475 “We had an understanding and he knew what we were talking about, that if there were any more robberies besides this one that he would tell us about that he had committed, them robberies would not be filed, but he understood that this one would be filed on.”

On redirect the witness testified: “Q. By Mb. Maein : Did he confess to any other crimes, Mr. Wiggins, other than the two you have mentioned? A. No, not exactly. Q. Well, all right. In any event, the conversation about these other crimes occurred after the first oral statement; is that correct? A. That’s true. Q. And you told him that you wanted to clear these things up and get them out of the way so they wouldn’t be outstanding, or words to that effect? A. That’s right. . . . I told him that if there were any more robberies, that if he wanted to clear them up and not have them outstanding against him later on wherein if we did get him identified later on he might have more additional charges filed against him, and the way it was, he had enough with his background, and he finally admitted these other two, knowing they would not be filed against him.”

Officer Baxter was present at the conversation which was taken down by the stenographer. He testified that he and Inspector Ragsdale handed to defendant the transcribed confession on the following day. For 15 to 20 minutes he seemed to be reading it and wrote in the margin “not sure of date,” initialed it, then signed each page, initialed his marginal comment on each copy of the document. All these things he did without making any comment.

Such was the extent of the state’s original showing on this subject.

Immediately after the reading of the written confession to the jury and before the cross-examination defense counsel, a deputy public defender, unsuccessfully moved to strike the testimony of Wiggins with respect to the matter of other offenses and then advised the court in the absence of the jury that he felt obliged to explore that testimony on cross-examination, saying in part: “It’s not the legal question of admissibility with which I was concerned so much as I wanted to make a statement for the record that had it not been for the statement made by the officer, that it would not have been consistent with my planned conduct of the case to explore that field, and I am making this statement only so it can’t later be said that I have obviated any objection I may have had to this statement by my own questions. My position is *476 that I am placed in the position where I must ask these questions in view of the statement that has been made by the witness.

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Related

People v. Lindsey
27 Cal. App. 3d 622 (California Court of Appeal, 1972)
James William Lindsey v. Walter E. Craven
427 F.2d 153 (Ninth Circuit, 1970)
People v. Huber
225 Cal. App. 2d 536 (California Court of Appeal, 1964)
People v. Nelson
224 Cal. App. 2d 238 (California Court of Appeal, 1964)
People v. Brown
222 Cal. App. 2d 739 (California Court of Appeal, 1963)
People v. Dyer
217 Cal. App. 2d 176 (California Court of Appeal, 1963)
People v. Stoner
205 Cal. App. 2d 108 (California Court of Appeal, 1962)
People v. Rand
202 Cal. App. 2d 668 (California Court of Appeal, 1962)
People v. Spaise
193 Cal. App. 2d 294 (California Court of Appeal, 1961)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
188 Cal. App. 2d 471, 10 Cal. Rptr. 488, 1961 Cal. App. LEXIS 2448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-lindsey-calctapp-1961.