People v. Nino

224 Cal. App. 2d 1, 37 Cal. Rptr. 529, 1963 Cal. App. LEXIS 1495
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 2, 1963
DocketCrim. No. 8819
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 224 Cal. App. 2d 1 (People v. Nino) 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. Nino, 224 Cal. App. 2d 1, 37 Cal. Rptr. 529, 1963 Cal. App. LEXIS 1495 (Cal. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

WOOD, P. J.

Defendant Aurelio Nino and one Doroteo Mojarro were convicted, in a trial by jury, of violating section 10851 of the Vehicle Code (driving automobile without consent of owner). Nino admitted an allegation of the information that he had been convicted previously of a felony (driving automobile without consent of owner). Nino appeals from the judgment.

On August 3, 1962, about noon, Mrs. Lewis left her 1960 Pontiac automobile, bearing license No. SWS 829, in a public parking lot in Los Angeles. When she returned to the lot about 1:30 pm., her automobile was not there. She had not given anyone permission to take the automobile.

On August 4, about 3:20 a.m., Officers Higgins and Werth, who were in an unmarked police car and were southbound on Alameda Street, stopped at 16th Street for a red traffic light. While they were there a 1960 Pontiac car, bearing license No. SWS 829, which was also southbound, stopped at the left side of the officers’ car and awaited the change of signal. After the signal changed to green, the officers followed the Pontiac to a place a few feet south of 24th Street, where they turned a red spotlight on the occupants of the Pontiac. At that time the defendant Nino, who was driving the Pontiac, looked in the rear-view mirror in the direction of the officers’ car, and then increased his speed to approximately 75 miles an hour and ran through red traffic lights at 41st and 44th Streets. When the Pontiac turned west on 50th Street the officers lost sight of it. The officers proceeded on 50th Street to Long Beach Boulevard and then north on Long Beach to 47th Place where they stopped for a red light. While they were there the same Pontiac came up beside the officers’ car, and the two defendants therein looked toward the officers. Then the Pontiac went through the red light at 47th Place. The officers pursued the car as it speeded up to approximately 75 [3]*3miles an hour and ran through red lights at 44th and 41st Streets. As the Pontiac approached 24th Street, a freight train which was proceeding eastward along 24th street was blocking the traffic on Long Beach Boulevard. The Pontiac stopped at 24th Street, and the two defendants alighted from the Pontiac, and ran alongside the train. The officers ran after the defendants. The defendants jumped on the train. Officer Werth also got on the train. Defendants jumped off the moving train near Alameda Street and went south on that street. Officer Werth jumped off the train at Alameda and ran after the defendants for about a block. At that time and place many police cars were arriving, in response to radio calls for help which had been made by Officers Higgins and Werth while they were in their police car. Soon thereafter the defendants were arrested.

Prior to the time that Officers Higgins and Werth first saw the Pontiac (at Alameda and 16th), they had had a report that a car of that description had been stolen. Those officers testified that the defendants were the men who were in the Pontiac, and that the defendant Nino was driving it.

It was established that the Pontiac was owned by Mrs. Lewis, who had left it at the parking lot.

Officer Lomen, an investigating officer, testified that in a conversation with defendants, about three days after their arrests, that Nino said that he had never seen Mojarro before they were arrested, and that Mojarro said that he had never seen Nino before the arrests.

A part of the asserted defense of both defendants was alibi evidence. Mr. Rios, called as a witness by defendants, testified that he resided at 1726 East 41st Place (3 or 4 miles from the parking lot); that the defendants were in his home on said August 3, about 12:30 p.m., and at that time he introduced Nino to Mojarro; that both defendants remained there until approximately 3 a.m. on August 4.

Mrs. Rios, called as a witness by defendants, testified that the defendants came to her home (same as Mr. Rios’ home) about noon on Thursday (August 2) and stayed there until approximately 3 a.m.

Defendant Nino testified as follows: That on said August 4 he left Mr. and Mrs. Rios’ home about 3 a.m. When he was arrested in the early morning of August 4 he was walking on Santa Barbara Avenue for the purpose of getting some fresh air. He was alone and had not been running. While he was on Santa Barbara Avenue, he heard a ear coming but he just [4]*4kept walking, and the officers put a shotgun out the car window and told him to stop. An officer kept asking him where his partner was, but he did not answer. He (Nino) did not have any knowledge of a theft of a 1960 Pontiac from a parking lot. At the time of the arrest, Officer Higgins hit him three times on the mouth with a flashlight and hit him eight times on his side with a blackjack. A few days after the arrest, he told an officer (Officer Lomen) that he did not know Mojarro. When he said he did not know Mojarro, he did not mean exactly that he did not know him, but the point was that he really didn’t know what he was in or what Mojarro was in, and he didn’t want to say that he knew somebody, and then be implicated in something that he did not have any responsibility for. He did not do any running that night. He (Nino) was not in, nor near, a 1960 Pontiac car that evening. In 1958 he was convicted of a felony, driving an automobile without the consent of the owner.

Defendant Mojarro testified as follows: When he was arrested about 4 o ’clock in the morning he was on his way home from a hamburger stand. He was intoxicated, and when he saw the police coming down the street, with light flashing, he did not want to get picked up for being drunk or anything, and for that reason he went into a driveway. He told Officer Lomen that he did not know Nino, because he was scared and did not want to get involved in anything. He did not take the Pontiac and was not in it. On cross-examination, he said that he did not touch the Pontiac. He was shown a signature and a palmprint, which were on exhibit 2 for identification, and he was asked whether the signature was his and whether the print was a print of the palm of his right hand. He answered both questions in the affirmative.

Officer Walmsley, an expert in comparing fingerprints, who was called by the prosecution as a rebuttal witness, testified that he obtained a palmprint (exhibit 3 for identification) from a chrome strip on the right rear door of the Pontiac ; that the palmprint which he obtained (exhibit 3 for identification) is the same as the palmprint on exhibit 2 for identification (the admitted palmprint of defendant Mojarro). Defendants’ objections to the introduction of the palmprints in evidence were overruled. One of the objections was to the effect that it was improper to introduce the evidence on rebuttal.

Appellant (Nino) contends that the court erred in receiving as rebuttal evidence the palmprint which was obtained by Officer Walmsley from the Pontiac; and that the [5]*5court erred in not giving an instruction to the effect that the evidence as to the palmprint of Mojarro was not admissible as against Nino. Appellant argues that Mojarro’s palmprint, which was taken from the Pontiac, was properly a part of the prosecution’s case in chief, and that the withholding of it for rebuttal evidence was improper and in violation of section 1093 of the Penal Code, which sets forth the order of proof. That section provides that after the defendant has offered his evidence, the prosecution may then “offer rebutting testimony only, unless the Court, for good reason, in furtherance of justice,” permits it to offer evidence upon its original case.

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224 Cal. App. 2d 1, 37 Cal. Rptr. 529, 1963 Cal. App. LEXIS 1495, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-nino-calctapp-1963.