People v. Blalock, Cr. 19915

• Decision Date: 08 November 1971
• Docket Number: Cr. 19915
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Jerry Lavon BLALOCK, Defendant and Appellant.

Page 231

98 Cal.Rptr. 231

20 Cal.App.3d 1078

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Jerry Lavon BLALOCK, Defendant and Appellant.

Cr. 19915.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 4, California.

Nov. 8, 1971.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 24, 1971.

Hearing Denied Jan. 6, 1972.

Richard S. Buckley, Public Defender, Los Angeles County, Harold E. Shabo, Jay C. Weitzler and David A. Sanders, Deputy Public Defenders, for defendant and appellant.

Evelle J. Younger, Atty. Gen., William E. James, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Beverly K. Falk, Deputy Atty. Gen., for plaintiff and respondent.

JEFFERSON, Acting Presiding Justice.

A jury found defendant guilty of second degree burglary as charged in Count IV of an amended information. ¹ A motion for a new trial and probation was denied and defendant was committed to California Youth Authority. Defendant appeals from the judgment of conviction.

On October 20, 1970, Miss Thomas was the owner of a 1959 Pontiac automobile which she parked on Imperial Highway near Compton Avenue. It was approximately 10 p.m. when she left the automobile and she believed she locked it before she left the car.

In the trunk, which was locked, she had a red bumper jack, some mechanical tools and two tool boxes, one large one and a small red tool box. The trunk of the vehicle was locked and could be opened only with a screw driver; the key would not unlock it.

When Miss Thomas returned the next morning to the location where she had parked her vehicle the car was gone. She had not given anyone permission to remove her automobile.

On October 21 Frank Oliphante was on his job at 92nd and Graham Streets near Beach. He observed a 1959 Pontiac which was parked nearby and noticed the defendant and another man standing near the rear of the Pontiac. He also observed that one of the men opened the trunk of the Pontiac with what appeared to be a screw driver. The defendant and the other person removed the red tool box from the trunk of the car and carried it down an alley and put it on the ground behind a building. They returned to the Pontiac and removed the other tool box and put it on the ground near the first took box. They lifted the jack out of the trunk and put it on the ground.

Jack Reidy of the Los Angeles Police Department was patrolling eastbound on 92nd Street near Beach in a police vehicle. Frank Oliphante told the officer what he had observed and pointed to defendant as one of the men he had seen removing the articles from the trunk of the Pontiac.

Officer Reidy arrested defendant and advised him of his constitutional rights. Defendant said he understood but wanted to make a statement. He told Officer Reidy 'I didn't know the car was stolen. I was just helping some other guys unload the tools.'

Charles Manuel, a Los Angeles County sheriff's detective had a conversation with defendant after advising him of his constitutional rights. Defendant stated that on October 20 in the early afternoon while he was walking through the alley at 92nd and Beach Streets he met three unknown male Negroes who stopped and approached him. One of them asked if he would come with them and remove some property from a vehicle. He stated that he did remove the property with the unknown persons and went home. When he returned to the neighborhood he was arrested.

Defendant contends the evidence was insufficient to sustain the conviction of burglary from an automobile. This contention is without merit.

We must view the evidence in a light most favorable to the People and presume in favor of the judgment the existence of every fact the trier reasonably could deduce from the evidence.

'The People may rely on circumstantial evidence to connect the defendant with the commission of the crime charged and to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed it. (Citations.) If the circumstances reasonably justify the trial court's findings, an appellate court cannot reverse merely because the circumstances might also be reasonably reconciled with a contrary finding. (Citations.) The test on appeal becomes whether substantial evidence supports the conclusion of the trier of fact, not whether the evidence proves guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. (Citation.)' (People v. Mosher, 1 Cal.3d 379, 395, 82 Cal.Rptr. 379, 389, 461 P.2d 659, 669.)

The evidence unequivocally establishes that the automobile burglarized was that of Miss Thomas; the trunk could be opened with a screw driver and defendant was seen opening the locked trunk with a screw driver. The trunk contained two tool boxes and a jack; defendant was seen removing the tool boxes and jack from Miss Thomas' Pontiac. The only reasonable inference to be drawn from the evidence was that defendant knew he was removing the tools and jack from the automobile without the owner's consent. The evidence established that the trunk was locked. The entry of the locked trunk of the automobile by defendant for the purpose of theft was a burglary, as defined in section 459 of the Penal Code. ² (People v. Toomes, 148 Cal.App.2d 465, 466--467, 306 P.2d 953.) Therefore, we are satisfied that the evidence was amply sufficient to sustain defendant's conviction of burglary second degree.

Defendant contends that certain instructions to the jury were erroneously given and refused, to the prejudice of defendant. There is no merit in this contention. The court gave the instruction footnoted. ³ Defendant urges that the court should have refused this instruction and given the jury the following instruction: 'In order to constitute auto burglary, all the doors and the trunk of an automobile must have been locked.' Although, in Toomes, the evidence showed that the passenger doors, as well as the trunk door, were locked and the last sentences of that opinion refer to that factual situation, we cannot read Toomes as standing only...