Ray v. People

243 P.2d 762, 125 Colo. 381, 1952 Colo. LEXIS 323
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedApril 14, 1952
DocketNo. 16,770
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 243 P.2d 762 (Ray v. People) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ray v. People, 243 P.2d 762, 125 Colo. 381, 1952 Colo. LEXIS 323 (Colo. 1952).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Knauss

delivered the opinion of the court.

The parties hereto appeared in reverse order in the trial court, and for convenience we shall herein refer to plaintiff in error as defendant, and to defendant in error as the People.

Defendant was charged with embezzlement and larceny as bailee in an amended information in five counts, all relating to the same transaction. He entered pleas of not guilty to all counts. At the conclusion of the People’s case, defendant moved for a dismissal of counts 1, 3 and 4 of the information, which motion was granted, and these counts were dismissed by the court. At the conclusion of all the evidence, defendant moved that the District Attorney be required to elect upon which of the two remaining counts he would stand, and the District Attorney elected to stand on count 5, in which it was charged that defendant, on the tenth day of January, 1950 in Chaffee County, Colorado, then and there being an agent of the Bert F. Jones Company, a Colorado Corporation, having in his possession and under his care a certain check made payable to said Company, executed by David M. Cochran on January 8, 1950, in the sum of Two Hundred Dollars, of the value of Two Hundred Dollars, and that said defendant while so in possession of such check, without the consent of said Company, did then and there [383]*383feloniously embezzle and fraudulently convert the same to his own use with intent to embezzle and steal said check, being the goods and personal property of said Bert F. Jones Company. Upon the trial the issue thus presented under count 5 of the information was submitted to the jury, and a verdict finding defendant guilty as charged in said count, and recommending leniency, was returned. Judgment was entered upon the verdict, sentence imposed, and defendant brings the cause here by writ of error.

Defendant was an agent of the Bert F. Jones Company, engaged in selling tires throughout the western part of Colorado. He was to pay all his traveling expenses, deriving his compensation on a profit-sharing basis, and required to remit to the company all moneys collected. On January 8, 1950, David M. Cochran, engaged in the garage business at Meeker, Colorado, gave defendant a check in the sum of $200.00 made payable to Bert F. Jones Company in part payment of Cochran’s account with the company. On or about January 8, 1950 defendant endorsed this check with the company name, by himself; requested a Salida businessman to cash the check at the First National Bank of Salida, and the proceeds of the check were then delivered to defendant.

Various officers and employees of Bert F. Jones Company testified that defendant had not remitted the $200.00 to the company. Defendant, testifying in his own behalf, admitted that he cashed the check and received the proceeds therefrom, as above recited; he testified further that he used $40.00 of this money to pay his expenses until he returned to Denver; that upon his return to Denver he was given a check for $50.00 by the Bert F. Jones Company; that he cashed this check, and from the proceeds thereof replaced the $40.00 which he had used out of the $200.00 Cochran check, and turned the full amount of $200.00 in cash over to one Bill Pfost, a part-time employee of the Bert F. Jones Company. Pfost, [384]*384called as a witness for the People on rebuttal, denied having received any money from defendant.

In addition to the evidence above mentioned, the People were permitted to establish, over defendant’s objection, that defendant had on November 26, 1949 received a check, exhibit “B,” for $97.85 from one Forrest Dice, in payment of a debt of Dice to the Bert F. Jones Company; that he cashed the check and failed to account for the proceeds to Bert F. Jones Company. Similar evidence was admitted for the purpose of proving that on or about February 7, 1950 defendant collected $300.00 in cash from the Valley Garage on an indebtedness due Bert F. Jones Company, and accounted to the Jones Company for only $100.00 of this collection.

Defendant assigns error in the admission of Exhibit “B,” which is a check drawn by Forrest Dice, dated November 26, 1949, on the Gunnison Bank and Trust Company, payable to Bert F. Jones Company, in the sum of $97.85. In addition to the stamped bank endorsements, the reverse side of the check shows a written endorsement as follows:

“Bert F. Jones Company
1426 16th Street
Denver, Colorado
R. F. Ray”

Underneath this written endorsement, which was identified as being in the handwriting of defendant, and admitted by him to be such, appears a stamped endorsement, as follows:

“Mt. Vernon Service
Rt. 3, Box 229, Highway 40
Golden, Colorado”

There also is disclosed on the check a perforation, showing it was paid, and giving the date of cancellation. The Exhibit affords evidence of its payment by the drawee bank.

This Exhibit “B” in its present condition was delivered by Dice to Bert F. Jones Company, after Dice had not [385]*385received credit therefor, and Dice then was credited with the amount thereof on his account with the Jones Company. Defendant testified regarding the proceeds of Exhibit “B” after he had cashed it at the Mt. Vernon Service, stating: “I used what was necessary for me to use as expenses, and then turned in, upon returning to Denver, turned in the equivalent, along with an original, which I am sure was made out on that, to the office in Denver.” Defendant further testified he had no recollection of the identity of the person in the Jones Company to whom he delivered the $97.85. He made no objection to the testimony regarding the collection of $300,000 cash from thé Valley Garage. He did assert, in his evidence, that he had turned in to the Company all of the $300.00, but did not recall to whom he made delivery on its behalf.

Defendant, on the witness stand, identified Exhibit “B,” stated when and how he received it, and for what purpose he received it; that he had endorsed the check with the name of Bert F. Jones Company; had cashed the check at the Mt. Vernon Service; that he had used the proceeds from the check “as expenses”; and on his return to Denver turned in an equal amount to the Company. The receipt of this money was denied by representatives of Bert F. Jones Company, as well as that relating to the $200.00 of the Valley Garage.

If any details were omitted by the People in proving Exhibit “B,” the defendant, by his evidence, voluntarily supplied the missing details when he testified that he picked up Exhibit “B” for credit on the Dice account and endorsed the payee’s name thereon, by himself, and cashed the $97.85 check at the Mt. Vernon Service.

Upon the trial, defendant’s counsel insisted that evidence of these other transactions was inadmissible.

It has repeatedly been held by our court that it is competent to show that a defendant on trial for a specific offense has participated in similar offenses, in order to establish either motive, intent, plan, design or scheme, and establish defendant’s identity, and that such evidence [386]*386is not inadmissible merely because it establishes that defendant is guilty of another offense. Schneider v. People, 118 Colo. 543, 199 P. (2d) 873; Perry v. People, 116 Colo. 440, 181 P. (2d) 439; Williams v. People, 114 Colo.

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Related

Gould v. People
445 P.2d 580 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1968)
Stanmore v. People
362 P.2d 1042 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1961)

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Bluebook (online)
243 P.2d 762, 125 Colo. 381, 1952 Colo. LEXIS 323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ray-v-people-colo-1952.