People v. Perry

277 P. 1080, 99 Cal. App. 90, 1929 Cal. App. LEXIS 373
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 22, 1929
DocketDocket No. 1527.
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 277 P. 1080 (People v. Perry) 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. Perry, 277 P. 1080, 99 Cal. App. 90, 1929 Cal. App. LEXIS 373 (Cal. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

KNIGHT, J.

Appellant was accused by indictment of violating the provisions of chapter 339 of the Statutes of 1923 (Stats. 1923, p. 695), it being charged that, having been previously convicted of and served a term in the state prison for the crime of grand larceny, he did, on March 3, 1928, in the city and county of San Francisco, feloniously possess and carry concealed upon his person a loaded revolver. Upon trial he was found guilty by a jury, and this appeal is taken from the judgment of conviction and the order denying his motion for a new trial. The grounds urged for reversal relate to the trial court’s rulings upon matters connected with appellant’s pleas of former acquittal and once in jeopardy.

The record discloses the following facts: Between 7:30 and 8 o’clock on the night of March 3, 1928, appellant and a companion named Risbin, both armed with pistols, entered an apartment on upper Market Street, San Francisco, occupied by a man named Brenner, and, after robbing Brenner, fled. An alarm was given and two motor officers tools: up the pursuit and within a few minutes captured the robbers in the basement of a building several blocks distant from the scene of the robbery. Appellant was immediately searched *92 and the loaded pistol used by him in perpetrating the robbery was found concealed upon his person, and when questioned he admitted having served a term in the penitentiary for grand larceny. He was first charged by information with jobbery and with prior conviction of grand larceny. When arraigned on that information he denied the prior conviction and entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity to the charge of robbery. He was tried first upon the general issue and found guilty of robbery in the first degree, and the jury found also that the alleged prior conviction was true. He was then tried before the same jury upon the issue of insanity, and the verdict was that he “was insane at the precise time the offense was committed on March 3, 1928, as alleged in the information.” Thereupon ,the trial court ordered that he be sent to the detention hospital for observation by the board of insanity commissioners. About a week later said board returned its findings, declaring him to be sane. The trial court then made an order pursuant to the provisions of section 1026 of the Penal Code (as added by Stats. 1927, p. 1149, sec. 4), to the effect that, having observed the defendant in court during the two trials and having heard the testimony given thereat, “and never at any time having any doubt as to the sanity of the defendant,” and having been advised by the board of insanity commissioners that appellant was then sane, it was ordered that he be remanded to the custody of the sheriff “until his sanity shall have been finally determined in the manner prescribed by law.” About a week later, however, and so far as the record shows, before the proceeding last mentioned was terminated, the indictment in the present case was returned. To this indictment appellant interposed four pleas: not guilty, not guilty by reason of insanity, former acquittal and once in jeopardy. At the trial he made no attempt to controvert the evidence introduced by the prosecution establishing the truth of the charge set forth in the indictment, but introduced in evidence the record of the robbery trial, including the proceedings of the trial on the issue of his sanity, and at the close of the evidence presented a motion for an instructed verdict upon the issues of former acquittal and once in jeopardy. The motion was denied, and as to those issues the jury was in effect instructed to find for the people. Such verdicts *93 were returned, together with one finding appellant guilty as charged. A motion for a new trial was then made by appellant and by the court denied, following which appellant withdrew his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and was sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison.

We are of the opinion that the rulings of the trial court relating to the pleas of former acquittal and once in jeopardy of which appellant complains were not erroneous. The crime charged in the indictment was, as appellant concedes, entirely separate and distinct from the crime of robbery for which he was first tried, and that being so he was subject to separate indictment, conviction and punishment therefor, irrespective of the result of the robbery case, and notwithstanding that both crimes may have grown out of the same continuous transaction and been committed at the same time (People v. Snyder, 74 Cal. App. 138 [239 Pac. 705]; People v. McKee, 80 Cal. App. 200 [251 Pac. 675]; People v. Case, 77 Cal. App. 477 [246 Pac. 1083]); consequently it was incumbent upon appellant to urge in this case all available defenses to the charge and also to bring forward any and all excuses" he may have had to offer why the penalty of the law should not be imposed upon him for the commission of the acts constituting the crime here charged, if it was found that he committed such acts; otherwise he is deemed to have waived such defenses and excuses. As already stated, among the numerous pleas interposed by appellant to the present charge were those of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity, the effect of which was to deny having committed the acts charged and to assert that if he did commit the same he was insane at that time. The present criminal procedure requires that where such pleas are entered the accused must be tried first under the general issue of not guilty, during which trial he is conclusively presumed to have been sane at the time the offense is alleged to have been committed (Pen. Code, secs. 1016, 1026), all evidence relating to the question of sanity of the accused being excluded (People v. Troche, 206 Cal. 35 [273 Pac. 767]), and at the conclusion of such trial he shall be tried upon the issue of insanity; or if he enters a plea of not guilty and fails to urge the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, he is likewise conclusively presumed to have been sane at the time the crime is alleged to have been committed *94 (Pen. Code, sec. 1016). Accordingly, in the case at bar,’ during the trial under the general issue appellant was conclusively presumed to be sane, and any evidence bearing upon the question of his sanity was not relevant to that issue. That trial having resulted in a verdict of guilty, appellant was then entitled under his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity to a trial upon that issue and to intro-' duce any legal evidence tending to establish such plea; but, as stated, at the conclusion of the trial on the general issue he withdrew his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, thereby eliminating from the case all question as to his sanity, so far as the crime charged in the present case is concerned. In other words, having withdrawn the plea which raised the issue of his sanity as to the present charge, he was conclusively presumed to be sane, and the trial court' was justified in pronouncing judgment accordingly.

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Bluebook (online)
277 P. 1080, 99 Cal. App. 90, 1929 Cal. App. LEXIS 373, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-perry-calctapp-1929.