People v. Smith

• Decision Date: 04 January 1966
• Docket Number: Cr. 8547
• Citation: 409 P.2d 222,63 Cal.2d 779,48 Cal.Rptr. 382
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: , 409 P.2d 222 The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Leaman Russell SMITH, Barbara Ruth Walker, and Donald E. Castner, Defendants and Appellants.

Page 382

48 Cal.Rptr. 382

63 Cal.2d 779, 409 P.2d 222

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Leaman Russell SMITH, Barbara Ruth Walker, and Donald E. Castner, Defendants and Appellants.

Cr. 8547.

Supreme Court of California, In Bank.

Jan. 4, 1966.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 2, 1966.

Burton Marks and George V. Denny, III, Beverly Hills, under appointment by the Supreme Court, and Erling J. Hovden, Public Defender, Wilbur F. Littlefield and James L. McCormick, Deputy Public Defenders, for defendants and appellants.

Thomas C. Lynch, Atty. Gen., William E. James, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Norman H. Sokolow, Deputy Atty. Gen., for plaintiff and respondent.

MOSK, Justice.

Defendants Leaman Smith, Barbara Walker, and Donald Castner appeal from judgments entered upon jury verdicts finding them guilty of conspiracy to commit forgery and burglary (Count I), the murder of Charles Monaghan (Count II), the murder of Robert Endler (Count III), the attempted murder of Stephen Suzuki (Count IV), and the attempted murder of Endel Jurman (Count V). The jury found the murders to be of the first degree, and fixed the penalty therefor at life imprisonment for Mrs. Walker and Castner, and death for Smith. The appeal of the latter is automatic. (Pen.Code, § 1239, subd. (b).) ¹

During the two months preceding February 1, 1964, Smith arranged for the printing of large numbers of blank checks purportedly issued by the Colgate-Palmolive Company and the Alka-Seltzer Miles Laboratories Company. With the assistance of Castner and Anderson, Smith placed false account numbers on the checks by a silk-screen process, made the checks payable to fictitious payees, signed them with the names of fictitious makers who were purportedly authorized officers of the issuing companies, prepared fictitious driver's licenses appearing to identify Smith as the person named as payee, and cashed a number of these checks at stores in the Los Angeles area.

In the late afternoon of February 1, 1964, Smith and Mrs. Walker left the house where they lived together, and proceeded to drive along West Pico Boulevard and nearby streets. Smith attempted with mixed success to cash fraudulent Alka-Seltzer checks at eight or nine liquor stores and food markets on the way. When the owner of one of the liquor stores refused to cash a check that Smith had presented, Mrs. Walker said, 'Why don't you cash that check, it's a good check.'

About 8:15 p. m. Smith and Mrs. Walker arrived at the Sears, Roebuck store on West Pico Boulevard. They went to the cashier's department and Smith presented one of the Alka-Seltzer checks to be cashed, together with a fictitious driver's license purporting to identify him as the payee, 'Thomas B. Conway.' On turning the license over, the cashier's suspicions were aroused when she found it did not have the usual seal of the State of California stamped on the reverse side. A call went out for the store security officer, Mr. Winters; while awaiting his arrival, the cashier explained the delay to Smith by pretending that the check was being cleared through Telecredit. Simth stated that he 'couldn't wait that long,' but the cashier retained the check and license and reported the Telecredit line was busy. Mr. Winters then arrived, and out of the presence of Smith and Mrs. Walker the cashier gave the check and license to him and explained her reasons for believing they were not genuine.

At Mr. Winters' request, Smith and Mrs. Walker accompanied him to an inner office. He asked Smith if he had any further identification, and Smith said he did not. Smith then stated he wanted the check and license returned to him and wanted to leave. Mr Winters replied he would first have someone examine the check and license; in the presence of Smith and Mrs. Walker, Mr. Winters telephoned the Wilshire Detective Bureau, located next door to Sears, and asked that a detective be sent over.

A few minutes later Police Officers Monaghan, Endler, and Jurman, all in plain clothes, arrived in the office. Mr. Winters showed them the check and license and told them he suspected they were not genuine. Smith asked the officers, 'Are you cops?' and Officer Endler answered, 'Yes.' Smith and Mrs. Walker appeared to speak to each other, but their words were inaudible to the others present. ² The police officers then separated Smith and Mrs. Walker, conducting the latter to a chair in the outer office. Mr. Winters attempted to reach Telecredit to verify the check, when Smith suddenly drew a gun from under his coat. Officer Monaghan shouted, 'Look out, he has a gun,' and a shot rang out. Mr. Winters and the officers ducked, and Smith stood waiving his gun and saying, 'Get out of my way, I'm coming through' or 'I'm coming out.' Officer Endler had been shot point-blank in the head; when found after the shooting, his gun was still in its holster. Officer Monaghan drew his gun and pushed Mr. Winters, who was unarmed, behind him on the floor. Mr. Winters' view was then blocked, but he heard another shot and saw Officer Monaghan bleeding profusely from the head. Officer Jurman attempted to stop Smith, but Smith shot him in the chest and arm. At some point in this melee Smith also fired in the direction of two employees crouching by a counter and wounded one, Mr. Suzuki. Smith then ran out of the office and down a main aisle of the store, brandishing his gun and shouting, 'Don't move, anybody, don't move.' He left via the parking lot and escaped in his car.

Additional police arrived on the scene and found Officers Monaghan and Endler dead from gunshot wounds of the head, and Officer Jurman and employee Suzuki alive but suffering from other gunshot wounds. Throughout the shooting and escape Mrs. Walker had remained seated in the chair where she had been placed earlier. Officer Bradshaw took possession of her purse, opened it and found a loaded .25-caliber pistol in a holster. Officer Bradshaw then arrested and handcuffed Mrs. Walker, and turned her over to Officer Sinclair, his superior. A further examination of Mrs. Walker's purse disclosed a driver's license in her wallet with her photograph on it but issued to the name 'Barbara J. Snyder,' and scraps of paper bearing the names and addresses of defendants Castner and Anderson. In a separate, zippered compartment of the purse were found four other driver's licenses, each bearing the same photograph of Smith but issued to a different fictitious name and address; six forged Alka-Seltzer checks; and a driver's license and social security card in a fictitious name ('Larry Parker') previously used by Smith in passing the Colgate-Palmolive checks. ³

After leaving the Sears parking lot Smith abandoned his car on a side street and took a taxi to a bar, where he telephoned Castner. Phillips, who lived with Castner, testified that the latter answered the call about 9:15 p. m., and became 'visibly shook and nervous.' After hanging up, Castner ran around the apartment pouring photographic solutions down the drain and packing other equipment, including an enlarger, into Phillips's car. They drove to the bar and had a round of drinks with Smith, then all three returned to Phillips's car. As they entered Smith said, 'Turn on the radio, I have shot someone.' They heard a news broadcast stating that two policemen had been killed at the Sears store and two persons had been wounded. Smith told Phillips and Castner that he and Mrs. Walker had gone into Sears to cash a check and there had been 'some trouble.' At Smith's direction they drove to an alley and dumped the equipment into a trash can, then continued to the railroad freight yard where Smith left them. Phillips and Castner drove on to the apartment of a friend, Johnny Holloway; the three went to a bar, and Castner told Holloway that if anyone should ask, they had been with him all evening. Smith was arrested in Chicago on a fugitive warrant four days later, still in possession of the gun that had been used to kill Officers Monaghan and Endler.

Mrs. Walker testified in her own defense. She was five or six months pregnant at the time of trial, had three children by a prior marriage, and was 21 years old. Her schooling had not progressed beyond the sixth or seventh grade, and she could barely read or write. Smith met her in Chicago where she was working as a waitress, and brought her to California in the middle of January 1964. Through Smith she met Castner and Phillips, but she had never seen Anderson until he appeared in court. Smith told her to call him 'Jim Synder,' and to describe him as a sales promotion man for Colgate-Palmolive. He told her he carried a gun for protection because he often had large amounts of money on his person. He told her that the various checks he cashed were his own pay checks, and she had no knowledge that they were fictitious. She had no part in preparing any of the checks involved in this case, and Smith had made it very clear to her that she was to keep out of his 'business.' He gave her a driver's license made out to 'Barbara J. Snyder' for the purpose of proving her age when they went to bars or nightclubs together. He often opened her purse, and told her she need not use the zippered compartment. Before they went out on the evening of February 1 he turned his back on her and put something in that compartment, which was later found to contain the additional fictitious checks and driver's licenses. When they reached the Sears parking lot Smith said he planned to buy a dress for her and told her to carry the .25-caliber automatic in her purse for him. She obeyed, as she had in the past, and they entered the store. She did not know he was still armed; during the shooting and the confusion following it, she made no move to escape; and thereafter she fully cooperated with the police in their efforts to identify and apprehend 'Jim Snyder.'

Smith took the stand and corroborated Mrs. Walker's testimony as to her ignorance of his 'business.' ⁴ As for...