People v. Easley

• Decision Date: 19 February 1957
• Docket Number: Cr. 5798
• Citation: 307 P.2d 10,148 Cal.App.2d 565
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Ransom EASLEY and Calvin Coolidge Johnson, Defendants, Ransom Easley, Defendant and Appellant.

Page 10

307 P.2d 10

148 Cal.App.2d 565

The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Ransom EASLEY and Calvin Coolidge Johnson, Defendants Ransom Easley, Defendant and Appellant.

Cr. 5798.

District Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 2, California.

Feb. 19, 1957.

Robert J. Hall, Los Angeles, for appellant.

Edmund G. Brown, Atty. Gen., Dan Kaufmann, Deputy Atty. Gen., for respondent.

ASHBURN, Justice.

Defendant, after a non-jury trial, was convicted of violation of Penal Code § 337a, subdivision 2, in that he and his co-defendant Johnson did, on May 8, 1956, occupy an apartment in the city of Los Angeles for the purpose of recording and registering bets on horse races. The court suspended proceedings and granted probation. Defendant moved for a new trial which was denied. Thereupon defendant filed a notice of appeal 'from the judgment therein entered' and from the order denying a new trial.

As no judgment was actually entered the respondent raises a question of the effect of a notice of appeal worded as above indicated. Section 1237, Penal Code, was amended in 1951 to provide for an appeal by a defendant from an order of probation, saying in subdivision 1: '* * * an order granting probation shall be deemed to be a final judgment within the meaning of this section.' Since that amendment it is immaterial whether a defendant appeals in terms from the order of probation or from the judgment. For purposes of appeal they are interchangeable terms. It was so held in People v. Goldstein, 136 Cal.App.2d 778, 793, 289 P.2d 581, and People v. Reed, 128 Cal.App.2d 499, 500, 502, 275 P.2d 633. The instant appeal is to be treated as one taken from the probation order.

Appellant's sole argument is that he was convicted through use of evidence seized as a result of a wrongful search, which evidence he seasonably and unsuccessfully sought to suppress. The claim is found to be without merit.

On May 8, 1956, Officers Braun and Andrews, of the Los Angeles City Police Department, were possessed of information that bookmaking was being conducted at premises whose telephone number was Adams 1-7251. The source of the information was not disclosed to the court. They found said telephone number to be that of a residence, apparently, an apartment, at 111 West 40th Place, Los Angeles, listed in the name of Eva May. The officers on that same day 'staked out' that residence, parking their unmarked car some 75 feet away and watching what want on for about an hour. During that period some ten to twelve people would approach the front door, knock once, wait a brief period, the door would open and they would enter. After a lapse of five to ten minutes each would leave the premises. The officers then placed themselves on the side of the house, close to the front door. About three o'clock an unidentified man climbed the stairs of the front porch, went to the door, knocked, and while he was awaiting admittance the two officers came up behind him and looked through the open door. When Braun, who is an expert on bookmaking customs and practices in the area, did so he saw Johnson standing inside, to the right of the living room door, and defendant Easley seated at a table in the kitchen which adjoined the living room, the intervening door being open. Easley was telephoning; on the table in front of him were a racing form, several copies of National Daily Reporter, some scratch sheets and a 'magic slate.' Just to the left of the slate and in front of Easley was a pad of white paper about six by three inches in size with a betting marker on the top sheet. Defendant had a pencil in his hand and was about to write on the slate when Braun entered the living room. As he passed Johnson the latter said 'Eas' and defendant Easley immediately lifted two pieces of paper from the slate and writing which the officer saw thereon as he approached immediately disappeared. Thereupon an arrest of Easley and Johnson ¹ was made and search begun, but it seems to have been limited to the persons of defendants. A betting marker was taken from Johnson's wallet and a front door key from each defendant. The seizure embraced those items and such objects as were in plain sight, above enumerated. Defendant's argument on appeal is a claim that the seizure was unlawful because there was no reasonable basis for an arrest and hence no right of search or seizure without a warrant. There was no warrant here.

Reasonable ground for arrest need not be based upon evidence which would be competent at a trial; it may be hearsay; and although information furnished by an anonymous informer is not enough to afford reasonable ground, it is proper to be considered by the officers in forming their opinion as to whether reasonable cause for arrest exists. "Probable cause is a suspicion founded upon circumstances sufficiently strong to warrant a reasonable man in the belief that the charge is true." People v. Brite, 9 Cal.2d 666, 687, 72 P.2d 122, 132. In People v. Novell, 54 Cal.App.2d 621, 623, 129 P.2d 453, 454, the concept is thus defined: "By 'reasonable or probable cause' is meant such a state of facts as would lead a man of ordinary caution or prudence to believe, and conscientiously entertain a strong suspicion, that the person accused is guilty.' In re McCarty, 140 Cal.App. 473, 474, 35 P.2d 568.

'The term, 'probable,' has been defined as...