People v. Sanders

• Decision Date: 26 June 1963
• Docket Number: Cr. 8554
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Will Otis SANDERS, Defendant and Appellant.

Page 707

31 Cal.Rptr. 707

217 Cal.App.2d 606

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Will Otis SANDERS, Defendant and Appellant.

Cr. 8554.

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

June 26, 1963.

Carl A. Earles, Los Angeles, for appellant.

Stanley Mosk, Atty. Gen., William E. James, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Clark Moore, Deputy Atty. Gen., for respondent.

FORD, Justice.

By an amended information the defendant Sanders and Jack O'Neal Hackett were charged with the crime of robbery. (Pen.Code, § 211.) It was alleged that money was taken from Henry F. Zander, who was 'a person who was then and there performing his duties as operator of a motor vehicle used for the transportation of persons for hire.' ¹ It was further alleged that at the time of the commission of the offense, the defendants 'were armed with a deadly weapon, to wit, switch-blade knife.' Each defendant waived his right to trial by jury. The defendant Sanders was convicted of robbery of the first degree. Hackett was acquitted. While the document which has been assumed to be a notice of appeal from the judgment was not skillfully drawn, ² no question as to its sufficiency has been raised by the respondent. We treat it as constituting a sufficient compliance with the law. (See People v. Robinson, 43 Cal.2d 143, 145, 271 P.2d 872.)

The principal contention of the defendant Sanders is that the evidence as to his identity as one of the participants in the commission of the crime was insufficient to sustain the conviction. The witness Zander testified that he was a cab driver and that about ten minutes before six o'clock on the morning of February 15, 1962, two men entered his cab as passengers and directed him to take them to another part of the City of Compton. He did so. After he alighted from his cab and went arount the vehicle and opened the rear door, Sanders placed a knife against his stomach. The exposed blade was about four inches long. Upon the demand of Sanders, the cab driver gave him his change. Sanders' companion took the cab driver's wallet from his pocket. The wallet contained about $15.

Portions of the cab driver Zander's testimony under cross-examination were as follows: 'Q. Were you too scared, sir, to pay much attention to anything? A. Well, I was pretty well scared all right. * * *

Q. Were you too scared to pay too much attention to anything? A. Yes. Q. Now, in answer to one of the questions which the District Attorney asked you * * * you referred to the Defendant, Sanders. Did you say, in referring to something he said, 'It might not be him but it looked like him?' Was that one of your answers to the District Attorney's question? A. I believe it was, yes.' The witness could not recall whether the robber that he testified was Sanders had a mustache at the time of the offense.

On redirect examination the cab driver testified in part as follows: 'Q. * * * Is there any doubt in your mind that the shorter of the two men who held you up on the 15th is the Defendant, Sanders? A. Not to my--not to my mind, no. Q. There is no doubt? A. No, no doubt in my mind.' He did express a doubt as to whether the defendant Hackett was the man who participated with the defendant Sanders in the commission of the offense. ³ The witness further said that he could not tell whether the knife used 'was a switch-blade, paring knife, or anything.'

On inquiry by the court, the cab driver testified as follows: 'Q. BY THE COURT: Do I understand that you have no doubt that Sanders, sitting at the end of the counsel table, is the shorter of the two men you have described? A. Yes. Q. You have no doubt? A. I have no doubt--well, it's to my, to my recollection, and from what I seen, I would say that he is.'

On recross examination, the cab driver Zander gave the following testimony: 'Q. Well, you told us a little earlier, sir, that this might not be Sanders, but it looked like him; is that right? A. Yeah--well, that's what I meant to say; it looks so much like him that I couldn't--Q. Did the man whom you have identified as being Mr. Sanders have any conversation with you in the cab from the point of the pick-up until the point to where you came to? A. Yes; just talked a little bit about the weather, how bad the weather was. Q. Now, did that person talk to you, or did he talk to his companion? A. He was talking to me.' In response to further inquiry, the witness stated that at the preliminary hearing he had testified as follows: 'Q. You say there was no conversation with either person the entire time you were in the cab and you were driving to the location; is that right? A. No. Q. Did you hear any conversation between them? A. No.'

The defendant Sanders testified in his own behalf. He denied that he had committed the offense charged and said that he was at home in bed at the time when the robbery occurred. He further testified that he had had a mustache for 'over two years.' The defendant's alibi was supported by testimony of his mother, his brother and his sister.

The appeal is without merit. The governing law is stated as follows in People v. Alonzo, 158 Cal.App.2d 45, at page 47, 322 P.2d 42, at...