People v. Abbott

• Citation: 303 P.2d 730,47 Cal.2d 362
• Decision Date: 23 November 1956
• Docket Number: Cr. 5901
• Court: United States State Supreme Court (California)
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Burton W. ABBOTT, Defendant and Appellant.

Page 730

303 P.2d 730

47 Cal.2d 362

The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Burton W. ABBOTT, Defendant and Appellant.

Cr. 5901.

Supreme Court of California, In Bank.

Nov. 23, 1956.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 19, 1956.

Leo A. Sullivan, Oakland, for appellant.

Edmund G. Brown, Atty. Gen., Clarence A. Linn. Asst. Atty. Gen., Raymond M. momboisse, Deputy Atty. Gen., J. F. Coakley, Dist. Atty., Dale Stoops and John C. Baldwin, Deputy Dist. Attys., Oakland, for respondent.

GIBSON, Chief Justice.

Burton W. Abbott was charged by the grand jury of Alameda County with the kidnaping and murder of Stephanie Bryan. Following denial of a motion to set aside the indictment, Abbott petitioned this court for a writ of prohibition on the ground that the Superior Court of Alameda County did not have territorial jurisdiction of the offenses charged. We denied the petition, and he pleaded not guilty to each of the counts. The trial jury, after finding that Abbott was guilty of kidnaping in violation of section 209 of the Penal Code ^* and that the victim had suffered bodily harm, fixed the penalty at death. It also found him guilty of first degree murder and made no recommendation as to punishment. His motion for a new trial was denied, and he was sentenced to death on both counts. This appeal comes before us automatically. Pen.Code, § 1239, subd. (b).

Stephanie Bryan, who was a shy, fourteen-year-old honor student at Willard Junior High School in Berkeley, disappeared on April 28, 1955, while walking home from school. She left school about 3:15 p. m. and met a girl friend with whom she walked south to Ashby Avenue and then east along that street to the point where it is intersected by College Avenue. After stopping at a branch of the public library and two shops in the vicinity of that intersection, the girls continued eastward together on Ashby for several blocks. They parted about 4 p. m., and, when she was last seen by her friend, Stephanie was near the grounds of the Claremont Hotel. From that point she usually followed a road through the hotel grounds, took a pathway that entered the street on which she lived, and then walked a distance of several hundred feet to her home. This part of her route was relatively secluded.

Stephanie was carrying several books, including a French textbook, and a purse which contained a wallet and a pair of glasses. She was wearing, among other garments, a navy blue cardigan sweater over a white slip-on sweater, a blue cotton skirt, several petticoats, nylon panties and a brassiere.

About 4:15 p. m. on the day Stephanie disappeared, several motorists saw a man struggling with a young girl in a car which had stopped suddenly at the side of a road in Contra Costa County, near the Broadway Tunnel, a few miles north of the Claremont Hotel. The girl appeared to be very frightened and was screaming. She was in the back seat of the car, and the man, who was leaning over the front seat, was beating her and pulling her down and away from the rear window. She was wearing a navy blue cardigan garment over something white.

On May 2, four days after Stephanie's disappearance, her French textbook was found beside Franklin Canyon Road in Contra Costa County. Except for the fact that its cover was slightly dampended by dew, the book was clean and dry, although it had rained in the area on April 29 and 30.

Nothing further regarding Stephanie's disappearance was learned until July 15, when her purse and wallet were found in Alameda at the home of defendant Abbott. His wife discovered the articles in a cardboard box in the basement, and, upon reading the identification cards which were in the wallet, she went upstairs and excitedly asked her husband and others who were present if Stephanie Bryan was not the name of the girl whose disappearance had been reported in the newspapers. Abbott said that the purse probably belonged to some friend of Mrs. Abbott. A guest suggested that the police be called, and this was done. As a result of a search conducted by the police in Abbott's home on the following day, Stephanie's glasses, brassiere and the rest of her books were found buried in the basement in eight inches of sand.

When questioned by the police, Abbott said that, on April 28, the day of Stephanie's disappearance, he left his home in Alameda in the morning and drove to a mountain cabin in Trinity County which was owned by his wife's family. He said that he arrived at the cabin sometime after 8:30 on that evening and remained there until May 1.

At the time of these events Abbott was 27 years old and was attending the University of California in Berkeley. He was a regular customer at a doughnut shop which was located less than a block from the school Stephanie attended. This shop was frequented by pupils from that school, and Stephanie occasionally made purchases there. A witness testified that he saw Abbott at the shop on the afternoon in question and that he saw him leave about 3:20 p. m. and enter his car, a 1949 Chevrolet sedan. At 3:30, a car resembling Abbott's and driven by a man who looked like him went through a red light at the intersection of Ashby and College Avenues, traveling about 40 miles an hour, and continued in an easterly direction on Ashby toward the Claremont Hotel. As we have seen, Stephanie walked eastward on Ashby for several blocks and disappeared in the vicinity of the hotel.

Five persons testified that they witnessed the struggle between a man and a young girl on Tunnel Road near the Broadway Tunnel. One of them identified Abbott as the man in the car, another stated that a picture of Abbott published in a newspaper resembled the man, and a third said that the man was about 30 years of age and had a receding hairline like Abbott's. The other two witnesses described the car in which the incident occurred as similar to Abbott's. Tunnel Road leads to the 'Orinda Crossroads,' and from this point several roads lead to Highway 40 which may be used to reach the area in Trinity County in which the mountain cabin is located.

On July 20, a search party discovered Stephanie's body in a shallow grave about 300 feet from the cabin in Trinity County. Her panties, which had been 'cut or torn' through the left side and the crotch, were knotted around her neck. The rest of the clothing Stephanie was wearing on the day of her disappearance was on the body, except for her brassiere, which, as we have seen, was found in Abbott's basement. Because of extensive decomposition, it was impossible to determine by a physical examination whether she had been sexually attacked. The body had been buried while in a state of rigor mortis, and the victim's arms and hands were raised in front of her face. There were multiple compound fractures of the skull and two holes about two inches in diameter through the skull. The head injuries were the principal cause of Stephanie's death. Particles of soil had become enmeshed in her cardigan sweater, and it could be inferred that the soil was wet when she was buried. It had rained and snowed near the cabin for several days prior to April 30, but there had been very little rain in the area during May, June or July.

Abbott was seen near the cabin on the morning of April 29, and he was at Wildwood Inn, a nearby tavern, from 2 p. m. until midnight of that day. Abbott's brother and sister-in-law joined him at the cabin about 3 a. m. on April 30. They all left at the same time on the afternoon of May 1, Abbott driving alone in his car. Their return route took them over Franklin Canyon Road where Stephanie's French textbook was discovered about 7:30 a. m. the next morning. During this portion of the trip, Abbott's car was behind the one in which his brother and sister-in-law were riding. Abbott arrived home about 8 or 9 o'clock that evening.

On May 2 Abbott returned to the area in Contra Costa County through which he had traveled the day before on his way home from the mountain cabin. The records of an oil company showed that he purchased gasoline at a station located near the place where Stephanie's book had been found earlier that morning. Abbott admitted being in the vicinity between 11 a. m. and 1 p. m., and said he had gone there to purchase used tires. He was unable to name or describe a place where he had stopped to look at tires, and he did not purchase any. The area is about 12 miles north of the campus of the university where Abbott had classes scheduled at 10, 11 and 1 o'clock.

A search of Abbott's car led to the discovery of two hairs which were indistinguishable from Stephanie's and six which were very similar to her hair. Eighteen fibers matching those in four of her garments were also found. There was blood deep in the floor mat in the back of the car, and the absence of blood on the surface indicated that the mat had been washed. The cardboard box in which Stephanie's purse and wallet were found contained old clothes which Abbott usually wore at the mountain cabin. His boots were encrusted with red mud which was the same as a sample of soil taken from Stephanie's grave at a point nine inches below the surface. Several fragments of bloodstained cleansing tissue which had been carried by a pack rat from the grave site to a nearby nest were of the type used by Abbott.

When first questioned by the police, Abbott described in detail the route he said he had taken from his home in Alameda to the cabin in Trinity County. The route which he described would not have taken him through Sacramento. Abbott's brother told the police that Abbott had told him that he had stopped in Sacramento en route to the cabin. Upon being informed by the police of his brother's statement, Abbott changed his story and said that he had stopped there at the office of the 'State Bureau of Land Management' about 4 p. m., gave a description of the office and drew a diagram of it. The next day he said that, although he had gone to Sacramento, he had not...