People v. Jordan
| Decision Date | 02 December 1955 |
| Docket Number | Cr. 5698 |
| Citation | 290 P.2d 484,45 Cal.2d 697 |
| Court | California Supreme Court |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Smith Edward JORDAN and Robert Otis Pierce, Defendants and Appellants. |
Vince Monroe Townsend, Jr., Los Angeles, and Enrico Dell 'Osso, Oakland, for appellants.
Edmund G. Brown, Atty. Gen., Clarence A. Linn, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raymond M. Momboisse, Deputy Atty. Gen., J. Frank Coakley, Dist. Atty., Los Angeles, Robert S. Anderson and Richard C. Lynch, Deputy Dist. Attys., Los Angeles, for respondent.
The defendants were convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to suffer the penalty of death. Their motions for a new trial were denied. They appeal from the judgments and from the orders denying their motions for a new trial.
On Saturday evening, March 28, 1953, Charles Rose, a driver for the Yellow Cab Company, was found slumped in a semiconscious condition behind the wheel of his cab in front of a house located at 3428 Haven Street, Oakland. The left rear door window was broken. There was blood on the front seat. The radio microphone was off of its bracket on the dashboard. The ignition and lights were on, the brake was off, the gear was in high, and the meter flag was still in the 'running' position. The driver was bleeding from four wounds on the back of his head, one of which proved to be fatal, and there were abrasions and a laceration on his right hand. He died several hours later.
The cause of death was found to be maceration of the brain and hemorrhage caused by depressed skull fracture. The autopsy surgeon testified that the head wounds were caused by a blunt instrument; that, considering the nature, size and shape of these wounds, he believed that they could have been inflicted by the butt end of a gun similar to a .45 caliber Colt revolver found in the possession of the defendants the following day.
There was evidence that the killing took place during the course of a robbery. The deceased had left home that Saturday night wearing a wrist watch and carrying a wallet with a $5 bill in it. He had some $2 in change in his coat pocket. He checked in at the Yellow Cab garage at 10:51 p.m. He was next seen at the Greyhound Bus depot a short distance away at 11:00 p.m. under circumstances which indicated he had just taken on some passengers. At 11:12 p.m. the police department received a call from Mrs. Julia Greenup of 3417 Haven Street which led officers to the scene of the crime. There was evidence that only one trip had been made that night by the deceased, and that was the trip from the bus station to the Haven Street address. His wallet and wrist watch and the $5 bill were missing when he was found. Just before he died he regained consciousness and asked for his watch and wallet. The inferences from the evidence support the conclusion that the passengers on that trip robbed and killed the cab driver. The identity of the defendants as those passengers and their claimed alibi will next be considered.
On the evening of March 28, 1953, Mrs. Greenup had been sitting by the window of her living room watching television when her attention was attracted by a noise in the street. Looking out she saw a Yellow Cab zigzag slowly down the street 'like someone had lost control of it', watched it angle into the curb opposite her house, bounce back and stop. She reached for the telephone to call the police but was unable to complete her call. She continued to watch the cab; saw two men get out; noted that they were dark-skinned; that one was taller and more slender than the other; that one wore a sport coat and the other a light overcoat; that one carried a suitcase; that after leaving the cab they ran back towards 34th Street and as they ran she heard one of them say 'Hit it', meaning run. She was unable to positively identify either defendant at the trial.
At 11:16 p.m. that night two men answering the same general description of the defendants boarded a No. 72 Key System bus at 34th and San Pablo Avenue, some four blocks away. The driver, Billy Ray Hall, could not identify Pierce but he positively identified Jordan as being the taller of the two men who boarded his bus that night at that location. He remembered Jordan because in boarding the bus the latter had bumped a lady passenger with the suitcase he was carrying, and under the company rules the driver was required to report this as an 'incident' if the passenger made any complaint. He testified that both men were Negroes; that Jordan's companion carried a light colored topcoat, and that both men got off at 13th and Washington Streets.
At the trial the defendants admitted that they were in Oakland the night of March 28, 1953, but denied that they committed the killing, that they were at the Oakland Greyhound Bus depot or in a Yellow Cab at any time during their stay in Oakland, or that they had carried their suitcase with them earlier than midnight that evening. They relied upon their own alibi evidence, namely that they had been at Walker's Tavern, a bar and restaurant located about a block from their hotel at 7th and Union Streets, from 9:30 p.m. until 1:30 or 2:00 a.m. the following morning; that they had thereafter returned to their hotel, gotten the suitcase, and checked out. They admitted having carried a loaded Colt .45 caliber revolver with them that evening for the purpose of obtaining money with it; and that while they were at Walker's Tavern they had planned to steal a car and use the gun to hold up a liquor store later that night. About 1:30 a.m. they stole a 1950 Ford automobile, committed an armed robbery at a liquor store, and fled the city in the stolen car. They took Highway No. 99, intending to return to Los Angeles.
The jury was justified in disbelieving defendants' alibi evidence. The supporting testimony of Eddie May Hardwell, cocktail waitress at Walker's Tavern, was impeached by prior contradictory statements. From all of the evidence the jury could properly conclude that the defendants had left Walker's about 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. with the suitcase, made their way to the Greyhound Bus station and arrived there by 11:00 p.m., entered decedent's cab and directed him to the general neighborhood where the cab was found; that they viciously assaulted and robbed the driver; that they ran from the cab and boarded a No. 72 bus a few blocks away; and that thereafter they returned either to Walker's or to the hotel. The proprietor of the hotel where they were registered testified that they had checked in on Friday night for one night only; that she ordinarily did not know when guests checked out, 'you just find the door open and they are gone'; that Pierce rang the desk bell a little after midnight on Saturday and said he was leaving; that he was then carrying the suitcase; and that she had not seen him come in. The owner of the stolen Ford testified that he had left it unattended with the motor running for a few minutes about 1:30 a.m. about a block from Walker's Tavern, and that when he came back it was gone. Defendants testified that it was after they stole the car that they checked out at the hotel.
Defendants drove as far as the city of Bakerfield where they were stopped the next day by police officers for investigation of a minor traffic incident. Pierce was driving and Jordan was sitting next to him. In the back of the car were a light colored overcoat, a sport coat, a suitcase, and other articles of clothing belonging to the defendant. A loaded Colt .45 caliber revolver was in the glove compartment. Because of the inability of Pierce to answer routine questions as to the ownership of the car, the defendants were taken to the police department for questioning and were subsequently booked for possible car theft and for carrying a concealed weapon. Both men denied ownership of the gun, or knowledge that it was in the car. At the trial they admitted that it was their gun.
Jordan first told the police that he was a hitchhiker and had been picked up by Pierce. Later he stated that Pierce had picked him up the night before at the Greyhound bus station in Oakland, and that Pierce at that time had the 1950 Ford. He also said that he met Pierce at Walker's bar on 7th Street in Oakland, and that they had been teamed up for about a month. These statements were made by Jordan out of the presence of Pierce. The next day Pierce admitted, out of the hearing of Jordan, that he had stolen the 1950 Ford and stated that whatever he did 'Jordan was with me.' At the trial they admitted having come to Oakland together from Los Angeles via San Francisco, and that they had constantly carried the loaded gun with them for purposes of robbery.
While the defendants were in the Bakersfield jail, hold orders were placed against them by various cities on robbery charges. They were interviewed also by Oakland police officers and by representatives of the district attorney's office of Alameda County as to the car theft, the armed robbery, and the cab murder but no charges were placed against them at that time for these crimes. On April 18, 1953, after the defendants had been removed to the Fresno County jail for trial on other charges, they were present at a line-up. The only outside person present was a plain clothes inspector from Oakland, Inspector Fake. Pierce voluntarily spoke to Fake at the close of the line-up, asked him if he was an Oakland police officer, and Fake answered that he was. Pierce then stated: 'Let's lay off all of this crap and go back to Oakland and cop to the murder.' There was evidence that 'cop' in the vernacular means to plead guilty. Fake then turned to Jordan and asked him what he wanted to say about it. Jordan replied that he had already told his story but admitted that he was 'a liar.'
A further conversation took place between Fake and Pierce and was admitted solely against Pierce. It occurred about twenty...
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