People v. Patterson

• Decision Date: 27 February 1969
• Citation: 75 Cal.Rptr. 485,270 Cal.App.2d 268
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Raymond Earl PATTERSON, Defendant and Appellant.

Page 485

75 Cal.Rptr. 485

270 Cal.App.2d 268

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Raymond Earl PATTERSON, Defendant and Appellant.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 3, California.

Feb. 27, 1969.

Rafus J. Carter, Los Angeles, for defendant and appellant.

Thomas C. Lynch, Atty. Gen., William E. James, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Lola M. McAlpin, Deputy Atty. Gen., for plaintiff and respondent.

FRAMPTON, ^* Associate Justice Pro Tem.

Statement of the Case

Defendant was jointly charged with Frank Darwin Yates with the crime of burglary, a felony, in violation of section 459, Penal Code. Before trial, Yates entered a plea of guilty and the degree was fixed as burglary in the second degree. Upon trial the jury found the defendant guilty as charged and fixed the degree as burglary in the second degree. A probation report was waived, immediate sentence was requested, and sentence followed to state prison. The sentence was ordered to run concurrently with any other sentence to be served. The appeal is from the judgment.

Statement of Facts

Richard Beach, the manager of the Surfside Eight Bar, located at 16624 South Normandie Avenue in the City of Gardena, closed the premises at 2 a.m. on September 17, 1967, and left the premises at 2:10 a.m. In closing the bar, he locked and secured the doors and windows. When he left the premises everything was in order. No one was given permission to enter the premises or remove anything from the premises. He returned at 8 a.m. on the 17th and observed that the front door of the premises had been broken open and was standing open. The lock on the door had been damaged. He described the interior of the premises as follows: 'Well, the place was wrecked. The cigarette machine was busted into. All the cigarettes taken and the change. The juke box was busted open. The change was taken from it. Had two pool tables which were busted open. The change was taken from those and everything, almost everything in the back bar was threw (sic) out on the floor. It was ransacked. The television set was missing.'

The television set was described as a '21 inch console,' about 3 1/2 feet in length and 2 1/2 feet in height. It had two legs missing. They had been removed so that the set would fit on top of the bar where it rested at the time of the burglary. Beach had never seen one person move the set from one place to another in the bar.

Mr. Beach had not removed the coins and had no way of knowing how much money was contained in the coin operated machines. There were empty money bags on the premises. A door leading from the back door into the supply room had been broken open, but nothing was missing from the storeroom. The windows in the dressing rooms had been broken open, and the bars outside the windows had been ripped off. The establishment used towels marked with the initials 'K.T.S. (C).' Some of these towels were on the premises at the time of the burglary.

Albert Johnson, a police officer for the City of Gardena, testified that on September 17, 1967, he was working with Officer Fruzyna on patrol duty; they were driving a black and white police vehicle, and were dressed in full uniform; at approximately 5 a.m. on the 17th they observed a 1967 Ford Galaxie, bronze in color, heading northbound on Normandie Avenue; the defendant and Yates were observed in the vehicle briefly and then again on foot; he could not tell which one was driving the vehicle; the trunk of the vehicle was open, exposing a large television set to view.

Officer Johnson testified that when he first observed the Ford the patrol unit was traveling southbound on Normandie Avenue; upon passing it and observing the television set in the trunk, the officers made a U-turn and approached the Ford Galaxie; at this time the Ford increased its speed and continued approximately a block and a half, accelerating rapidly while making a right turn; the officers followed in the same direction, but momentarily lost sight of the vehicle as it turned the corner; thereafter, the Ford was observed parked at an angle on the south curb of Gardena Boulevard; the lights on the car had not been turned off; he observed the defendant and Yates running very fast eastbound on Gardena Boulevard; the police vehicle was stopped and parked; Officer Johnson existed from the passenger side and apprehended Yates in a parking lot; the defendant then stopped running and surrendered himself; both were placed under arrest and returned to the Ford vehicle. Officer Johnson testified that Yates and the defendant were placed under arrest for burglary because of the unusually late hour, their possession of a television set exposed to view in the trunk of their vehicle, and because they fled from the officers both in their vehicle and on foot.

The Ford vehicle belonged to Yates. Officer Johnson testified that upon returning to the Ford he again observed the television set; upon searching the vehicle there was found numerous packs of cigarettes spread over the rear floor of the vehicle; many cigarette packs were also found in a box and in a large paper sack in the vehicle; an electric shaver and various towels bearing the initials K.T.S. (C.) were found; one towel was lying on the sidewalk outside the Ford vehicle and the others were found in the rear seat of the vehicle; the Ford was in motion approximately 200 feet north of the location of the Surfside Eight Bar when the officers first observed it.

Officer Johnson testified further that after the defendant and Yates were placed under arrest, Officer Propster, who had responded to a call at the scene, found a money bag with money in it.

Richard Propster, a police officer for the City of Gardena, testified that he arrived at the scene of the arrest between 5:30 and 5:45 a.m.; he found a money bag with money in it. The money bag was similar to a bag described by Beach as having been in his establishment when he closed it. Officer Propster testified that he found the bag and its contents behind the west end of a wall at the scene of the arrest. Officer Johnson had described this wall as a brick wall about four feet high bordering the front of the parking lot where Yates was apprehended.

Brian Fruzyna, a police officer for the City of Gardena, testified that he was working with Officer Johnson; when he first observed the defendant upon his arrest, 'I observed him to be very wet, apparently from perspiration. His forehead was very moist, beaded. His shirt was very wet under the armpits. The back of his shirt was wet, as well. And his pants were wet to some degree as well. He was extremely perspired.' He was sober, in the opinion of Officer Fruzyna.

Earl Pitts, a police officer for the City of Gardena, testified that during his investigation of the case he talked to the defendant at the Gardena Police Department headquarters on September 18, 1967; during the course of this conversation he asked the defendant about the television set; the defendant stated at first that he knew nothing about the burglary; when confronted with some of the facts related in the police report, he stated that 'he was awakened by Mr. Yates and that he got out of the car and next to the car, on the ground, was a television set. Yates had asked him to help him load it into the trunk of the car and he states he did'; the defendant participated in the conversation freely and voluntarily. ¹

The Defense

Frank Yates, the codefendant, testified that on September 16, 1967, he was in company with Pat Negle, a female person, and the defendant; they went to the Chit-Chat Bar in Bell Gardens somewhere between 3 and 5 p.m. where they remained until about 1 a.m. on September 17th; while there the defendant had too much to drink; about 12, or a little after, the defendant went to Yates' car and went to sleep in the back seat; he and Nagle tried to waken the defendant without success; Yates and Nagle, with the defendant asleep on the back seat, then drove to the Surfside Bar in Gardena where Yates and Nagle had a glass of beer; this was the place that was subsequently burglarized; the defendant remained in the asleep; they left the Surfside Bar...