Court Opinion

ID: 9535546
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:50:43.416292+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:16.682182
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I concur in the conclusion reached, but as I read the main opinion it purports to place the onus of the crimes on Bolden. In this respect I do not believe it fairly depicts the true factual situation as disclosed by the record. It is true that the two defendants undoubtedly entered into an agreement to “roll” Bennett and rob him of his money. Harper says the plan to “roll” “someone and get a piece of money” was first suggested by Bolden. On the other hand, Bolden testified that he knew nothing about any plan to rob anyone until the morning of the crime, and that he was then told by Harper that he (Harper) had their victim ready and asked Bolden to go along; that the latter would *878have nothing to do and that there would he no “kick.” Whether Harper or Bolden was the originator of the plan, it is evident from the admitted facts in this case that Harper, unknown to Bolden, made all arrangements for the robbery and had the victim ready for the fatal trip before he informed Bolden of his plan.
Harper was a man thirty-one years of age and an ex-convict, having previously been convicted of a felony. Bolden was but twenty-six years of age and had never been in trouble before. Bolden had never seen Bennett, their victim, before the morning of the day when the crime was committed. Harper was not only well acquainted with Bennett but they worked together as truck drivers on the Church ranch. Harper persuaded Bennett to take the latter’s ear. and make the trip to the Cole ranch. Harper conceived the ruse of the stalled car and the need of its owner for some gasoline. Harper procured the can of gasoline and put it in Bennett’s ear. He also secured the iron pinch bar and placed it in the rear of Bennett’s car. He concocted the scheme of offering to sell Bennett a watch in order to ascertain whether Bennett had any money. With this plan all worked out, with the deadly equipment safely secreted in the rear of the ear, and sitting alongside of his innocent victim, Harper directed Bennett to drive to Bolden’s place of business. Whether they went there by reason of a previous plan agreed to by Bolden, as Harper says, or to inveigle Bolden to go with them and help carry out the plan, as Bolden says, is one of the disputed facts in this case. It is the word of a hardened criminal, an ex-convict, against the word of a young man who had never been in trouble before. This background of the two persons who are charged with the murder of Bennett will help to explain some further facts to be later discussed. Whether Bolden seduced the ex-convict Harper into the commission of the crime with which they are charged, or whether Bolden was beguiled by Harper, an older man and hardened criminal, to go along, Bolden did become a party to the plan to rob and murder Bennett and he is responsible for every act that was committed by either of them in furtherance of that plan. After the two returned from-the first trip, Bolden says he left Harper at Salinas, took a taxicab to Moss Landing and there changed to a second taxicab for Watsonville, where he caught a bus to Los Angeles. Afterwards, Harper returned to the scene of the crime and found-Bennett alive. Harper again assaulted Bennett,- -beat him over the head with the iron *879pinch bar and killed him. There is not one word of evidence or a single circumstance in this whole case which tends to show that Bolden was with Harper on this second trip, except the uncorroborated word of Harper, an accomplice and. a witness impeached by the fact that he had previously suffered conviction of a felony.
In my opinion the evidence was sufficient to justify the jury in drawing an inference that Harper and Bolden entered into a conspiracy to rob Bennett and then murder him, or vice versa, so that he would not be available to furnish information and evidence which would lead to their arrest and conviction. It is clear that the evidence of a prearranged conspiracy to murder Bennett is wholly circumstantial, but there were sufficient facts adduced by competent evidence from which the jury might conclude that such prearranged conspiracy existed. The fact that Bolden assured the witness McGee that there would be no “kick” or “squawk”; that the lethal weapon used was an iron pinch bar; that Bennett was directed to transport Harper and Bolden to a somewhat secluded place before he was assaulted and robbed; and that Bolden talked about Harper going back “to see about the body,” are facts from which a reasonable inference may be drawn that, jt was the intention of both Harper and Bolden to kill Bennett as well as rob him. Such being the case, it is immaterial what Bolden’s conduct was after he and Harper separated in Salinas after they had robbed Bennett and left him presumably dead. In my opinion the testimony of Harper that Bolden returned to the scene of the crime with him and struck the blows which resulted in Bennett’s death is wholly insufficient to establish the fact that Bolden did the things testified to by Harper for the reason that Harper was an accomplice and his testimony was uncorroborated. (See Pen. Code, §1111.) However, I am of the opinion that the jury were justified in drawing the inference that if Harper returned to the place where Bennett was first assaulted and administered the blows which resulted in his death, after Bolden had left for Los Angeles, the consummation of the murder was within the contemplation of the conspirators and Bolden was equally guilty with Harper of the murder of Bennett. (15 C.J.S., § 74, p. 1105.)
I must confess that the competent evidence connecting Bolden with the crime is not very strong, but in my opinion it was for the jury to say whether or not it was sufficient to *880satisfy their minds to a moral certainty and beyond a reasonable doubt that Bolden did conspire with Harper to murder Bennett as well as rob him, and, as above stated, there is evidentiary basis for an inference that such was the plan. It is not our province to weigh the evidence, but only to determine whether there is any substantial evidence, direct or circumstantial, to support the verdict. If there is such evidence, the weight to be given to it is solely a matter for the determination of the jury.
As I understand the next to the last paragraph of the main opinion, it purports to say that a different rule should be laid down with respect to abortion cases than in cases of murder and robbery where the element of solicitation is involved. I do not agree with such purported distinction, and, in my opinion, the cases of People v. Clapp, 24 Cal.2d 835 [151 P.2d 237], and People v. Wilson, ante, p. 341 [153 P.2d 720], should be overruled and thus eliminate the confusion which they have added to the law of this state.