People v. McQuiston

264 Cal. App. 2d 410, 70 Cal. Rptr. 531, 1968 Cal. App. LEXIS 2099
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 26, 1968
DocketCrim. 13836
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 264 Cal. App. 2d 410 (People v. McQuiston) 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. McQuiston, 264 Cal. App. 2d 410, 70 Cal. Rptr. 531, 1968 Cal. App. LEXIS 2099 (Cal. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinion

LILLIE, J.

Defendant was charged with petty theft with a prior conviction of petty theft (§ 666, Pen. Code). The information alleged that on April 20, 1954, defendant was convicted of petty theft in the Municipal Court, Los Cerritos Judicial District, for which she served a term in the county jail. At the beginning of the trial, out of the presence of the jury, the allegation of the prior was amended simply as to date and place, to wit: February 7, 1951, Municipal Court, Long Beach Judicial District. The trial proceeded and after the defense rested, before rebuttal, the court, for “an insufficient evidence to sustain a finding that the defendant was legally convicted previously of petty theft,” struck the prior petty theft conviction from the information. At the conclusion of the trial the judge instructed the jury that the allegation of the prior had been stricken, “to completely ignore” the fact that it had been alleged and that defendant was charged only with petty theft. (§ 484, Pen. Code.) Defendant was convicted of petty theft, a misdemeanor; she appeals from the judgment.

On April 24, 1966, around 4:30 p.m., the manager, Yon’s market, Lakewood, observed a man load ten cartons of cigarettes into a shopping cart; suspicious, he watched behind a wire rack and saw defendant approach the man without speaking, place a carrying bag into the cart, put the cigarette cartons in the bag and walk out of the market through an unmanned cheekstand. He pursued defendant, confronted her in the parking lot and asked her if she had forgotten to pay for something; defendant said she did not know what he was talking about; he informed her that in her bag she had cigarettes belonging to the store; defendant admitted that the bag was hers but said she did not know what was in it; the manager asked her to step back inside the store. After entering, *413 defendant said, “Let me pay for the cigarettes. If you will please, I will pay you double the price of the cigarettes if you will just let me go”; he asked her about her partner bu1 defendant claimed to be alone. As the manager was trying to telephone the sheriff’s station defendant fled through the store without the bag; a boxboy caught her and she was returned. In 15 minutes a deputy arrived and advised defendant of her constitutional rights; he asked the manager to sign a citizen’s arrest statement; defendant told the manager “she would get even” with him if he did, but he signed the statement. The cigarettes were later examined for tax markings routinely stamped on each pack by machines leased to various wholesalers; all ten cartons contained cigarette packs which bore the stamp from a particular machine leased to Von’s market warehouse in El Monte.

For the defense Angel Delgado, husband of defendant’s niece, testified that defendant asked him to drive her to Long Beach, and on the way they stopped at William’s Market, Wilmington, where she bought ten cartons of cigarettes; they then drove to a Long Beach residence which defendant wanted to rent and finding the house vacant decided to telephone her husband; he drove her to a shopping center near Von’s and let her out of the car and departed to meet his wife at another location; the following day defendant telephoned him and asked him to search for the sales slip for the cigarettes which he discovered on the sun visor of his car.

On rebuttal Deputy Waddle testified that as he was handcuffing defendant in Von's market “she repeatedly” talked to the manager and ‘‘ was begging him to allow her to pay for the cigarettes and to forget about the whole thing”; she said she bought the cigarettes at Sa.v-On but was willing to pay for them again if they ‘ ‘ would drop the whole thing. ’ ’

Appellant raises various issues directed to the propriety of the procedure used by the trial judge to determine the truth of the allegation of the 1951 petty theft conviction. As they relate to the prior itself, the issues are moot because the trial judge, after hearing evidence thereon, concluded there was insufficient evidence to sustain a finding that defendant was “legally convicted” of the 1951 petty theft, struck the allegation from the information and instructed the jury to ignore it. Accordingly, the jury returned its verdict of guilty of petty theft, a misdemeanor." Thus, whatever merit there might be to appellant’s contentions can be considered only in the perspective of substantial prejudice to her rights on the *414 trial of the theft of the cigarettes from Von’s market.

Appellant claims that before trial, the judge should have determined whether she was “legally convicted” of petty theft in 1951 in the Long Beach Municipal Court, to wit, whether therein she was properly advised of her right to counsel and knowingly and intelligently waived the same before entering her plea of guilty; that it was error for the trial court not to arraign her on and take her plea to the amended information and not to grant her motion for continuance ; and that her failure to object to the “confession” in the 1951 petty theft does not preclude her from raising the issue qn this appeal since the 1951 case was tried before the decision in Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478 [12 L.Ed.2d 977, 84 S.Ct. 1758].

Appellant says she objected to the allegation of the 1951 petty theft conviction on the ground that she was denied the right to counsel therein, thus the first question the trial judge was required to determine, before plea and before reading the charge contained in the information to the jury, was whether the certified copy of the record of the prior conviction was “legally sufficient” to show that before she pleaded guilty the court properly advised her of her right to counsel and she intelligently waived the same. In the light of recent authorities it is our conclusion that the proper trial procedure was followed by the court below.

First, the 1951 petty theft conviction was an integral part of the main charge, to wit, petty theft with a prior petty theft conviction, as defined in section 666, Penal Code; alleged as such, the theft of the cigarettes from Von’s market became a felony. Second, no objection to the procedure used by the judge was voiced by defendant prior to trial, in fact, at the time the information was amended, defense counsel, in advising the court he had an “objection . . . lack of counsel a.t the time of the prior,” conceded that it would create a factual issue and could not be raised until proof of the prior “is actually offered.” 1 Third, defense counsel, realizing that *415 proof of the prior was part of the evidence to he submitted by the People on the felony charge, at no time requested or even suggested that the judge hear the issue of the prior before or separate from the trial; certainly he interposed no objection to the trial procedure. Admittedly, the judge was inexperienced in the trial of felony cases, but cautious, conscientious, patient and amenable to suggsstions from both counsel, at times asking for advice; thus, had defense counsel made the objection he now argues—it was error not to determine the “legal sufficiency’’ of the prior conviction before the trial— he would have given the judge the opportunity to pass on it before proceeding.

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Bluebook (online)
264 Cal. App. 2d 410, 70 Cal. Rptr. 531, 1968 Cal. App. LEXIS 2099, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-mcquiston-calctapp-1968.