People v. Scott

• Decision Date: 10 July 1963
• Docket Number: Cr. 3410
• Citation: 218 Cal.App.2d 118,31 Cal.Rptr. 925
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. James Homer SCOTT, Defendant and Appellant.

Page 925

31 Cal.Rptr. 925

218 Cal.App.2d 118

The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. James Homer SCOTT, Defendant and Appellant.

Cr. 3410.

District Court of Appeal, Third District, California.

July 10, 1963.

Hearing Denied Sept. 4, 1963.

Gus E. Skarakis, Sacramento, under appointment by the Third Dist. Court of Appeal, for appellant.

Stanley Mosk, Atty. Gen., by Doris H. Maier, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Nat A. Agliano, Deputy Atty. Gen., Sacramento, for respondent.

PIERCE, Presiding Justice.

Two defendants, one of whom is appellant Scott, were charged, tried and found guilty by a jury of violation of Penal Code section 459, in entering a building, towit: a telephone booth, with intent to commit theft. Upon appellant's request we appointed counsel to represent him on this appeal. This attorney, after examining the record, has advised the court he can find no meritorious grounds for appeal. We have also reviewed the record and have considered the arguments made by appellant personally in a letter addressed to the court. We also find no merit to the appeal.

Commission of the offense was observed by a woman and her 17-year-old daughter from the vantage point of the front window and porch of their home. The phone booth is located near the front of their premises. The scene was well lighted by a street light. The attention of the two women was directed by a loud noise. One of the men, who appeared to be the shorter of the two, was observed in the booth. '[H]e had a long object with him and was prying at something. * * * He kept pulling down.' The other was standing by. A parked brown or maroon colored 1949 or 1950 Chevrolet with white-wall tires and without hubcaps was described. The men got into the car, drove off and then returned. The shorter of the two men reentered the booth. He again began 'prying at the same object he had been prying at before.'

The daughter phoned the sheriff's office, giving a description of the men and of the car. At approximately the same time an automatic alarm reported a tempering with the phone booth coin box to the sheriff. Meanwhile the two men had gotten into their car and had again driven off.

An officer in a patrol car arrived at the scene, found the coin box had been tempered with; that its housing was on the floor of the booth. The dome light had been broken. He drove off and overtook a car a few blocks away. Since it fitted the description given by the two women, the car was stopped. Its occupants were the two defendants. Thereafter the mother and daughter both positively identified them as the men observed earlier. (The identification was repeated by them as witnesses at the trial.) Two large screw drivers, a pair of cotton gloves and a pair of leather gloves were...