People v. López Álamo

94 P.R. 7
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedFebruary 8, 1967
DocketNo. CR-66-92
StatusPublished

This text of 94 P.R. 7 (People v. López Álamo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. López Álamo, 94 P.R. 7 (prsupreme 1967).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Ramírez Bages

delivered the opinion of the Court.

[9]*9Appellant, Francisco A. López Álamo, was convicted of an offense of grand larceny by a court without a jury, after waiving his right to trial by jury. He was sentenced to serve from two to four years in the penitentiary.

He alleges that the trial court committed four errors. After considering the record of the case and the efficient memorandum filed by defendant’s counsel, we conclude that the trial court did not commit the errors assigned.

In order to determine the issue, we summarize below the facts of the case.

Policeman, Rafael López, accused appellant of the offense of grand larceny consisting in that at 10:00 p.m. on April 7, 1964, in the place Las Bombas in Guaynabo, P.R., he had removed the motor, transmission, and other units and parts of a Chevrolet vehicle, property of Miss Pomales Alvarez, attorney-at-law. Appellant was taken before Mr. José Gallego, justice of the peace, who, relying on the information furnished by the witness Agustín Crespo, determined that there was probable cause and fixed bail in the sum of $5,000. At the foot of the information said justice certified that he informed the defendants as to their right to communicate with a relative or an attorney and that “you are not bound to testify, and that any testimony could be used against you.” However, the information states that the aforesaid offense was committed in the place indicated “On or about April 10, 1964.” The day of the hearing, Miss Pomales testified that upon leaving the Inter American University, at 7:00 p.m. on April 7, 1964, she did not find her automobile in the place where she had parked it — the police found it the 10th of that month in Santa Rosa, in a pasture “in the Holsum Factory,” in Bayamón. It had been dismantled; that that same day she saw appellant before Justice Gallego, in the District Court, and she heard him say “that he accepted that he had taken out the motor from the car, and the transmission, and had kept it in a garage he had”; that he [10]*10made such statements voluntarily without been coerced in any manner and after the judge had given him the warnings aforementioned; that appellant had gone “where the car was, because some boys told him that that car was there; that then he went and took out the motor and the transmission, with a truck crane he has, he transported it to the garage he has in the ward Fraile. He explained that he had cleaned the motor, that it was in perfect condition and that it was in his garage. He gave the address and we went there and in effect we found it.” The prosecuting attorney asked Miss Pomales whether she had seen the motor and in answering if she had identified it by its number, she said that the number was “E-58-T-110382 and the original color was green, which was the same color that the vehicle had on the inside, that it still had it; it was complete and very clean; he had cleaned it and had. . . .” Agustín Crespo testified that at the request of a certain Cheo, he went with him and appellant, in the latter’s truck crane, to the ward Santa Rosa to remove a bumper, “behind Holsum’s Bakery.” Upon being questioned by the prosecuting attorney he stated:

“A. When we arrived there Cheo began to remove the bumper and the motor had been removed, it was underneath, trapped. It was out.
Q. What do you mean by ‘it was out’ ?
A. All the screws had been removed.
Q. But, was it in the place where the motor goes ?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And what happened with that motor ?
A. Alamo took it away from there.
Q. Where to, if you know, did Alamo take it ?
A. To a workshop.
Q. Where is it located ?
A. In Fraile Llano.”

He said that the vehicle was a 1958 Chevrolet; that he did not know who its owner was; neither did he know whether the motor was that of the vehicle in question. He was asked [11]*11whether that happened on April 7 and he answered “Yes, that it was the 10th, afterwards, that Cheo was caught.” Miss Pomales testified again and stated that the vehicle was left completely useless and that the losses were $2,500; that “The motor, together with the transmission, is worth about $400.” Justice of the Peace Gallego said that he met appellant when the latter was taken before him on the night of April 10, 1964; that “I informed him as to the information filed against him and I also informed him that he had the right to communicate with his family or with a close relative, or to retain an attorney, and I also informed him that he was not bound to make any statement because it could be used against him.” Upon being questioned by the prosecuting attorney, he testified thus:

“Q. What was the conversation you had with the defendant?
A. Well, he informed that in that case he had gone with a truck crane and had taken away an automobile motor with the transmission.
Q. Did he say, if he did say it, where the facts occurred, from where had he taken that motor and that transmission?
A. From a place called, a ward called Santa Rosa, in Guay-nabo.”

Appellant himself denied that the said justice had warned him and on the contrary he testified that he did not make any statement before him; that “On April 7, 1964, I was in Crespo’s workshop, I was doing some welding, a boy,' known as El Pelú, comes in, I do not know him very well, I only know him by El Pelú, and I haven’t seen him more than three times, and he comes to ask for the crane, to help him at the river. I told him I could not go there because I was doing some work at the time, and he told me: ‘a favor is done to anybody, we. go there, you help him, and come back at once.’ I took my crane and went there and while I was inside I saw in the mirror, and then I got out, that El Pelú had some keys in his pocket. He went away and [12]*12sometime later he appeared with a bumper and then, later, he called Crespo and then Crespo appeared with a muffler and its pipe. Then I heard them say: ‘that car is completely dismantled’ and I went and saw, and I went to find out, and the car, in effect, was not worth five cents”; that he did not take anything from said place but that Crespo and Cheo “took a car’s block with its transmission”; that “the block with the transmission because El Pelú told me: ‘take that to your shop, I’ll go by later to pick it up and I’ll pay you’; Crespo had already stayed at his place”; that then he took “that” to his shop, took it down and left it there; that the detective went, together with Miss Pomales, to look for that equipment. His testimony about the prejudiced party is the following:

“A. She went there ‘upset,’ a day later.
■ Q. And there, did she identify that motor as the motor of her car?
A. Yes, she says so, but according to the accusation made by the detective the motor she asks for is 110382.”

With regard to the date on which the facts occurred, appellant testified as follows:

. “Q. And that happened on April 7 ?
A.

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Bluebook (online)
94 P.R. 7, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-lopez-alamo-prsupreme-1967.