Court Opinion

ID: 9727176
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 13:23:45.462602+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:34.372125
License: Public Domain

REYNOSO, J.
I dissent. By today’s ruling the majority overturn prior law from this court (Young v. Superior Court (1967) 253 Cal.App.2d 848 [61 Cal.Rptr. 355]) and hold that a defendant may be convicted of an attempt to receive stolen property when the property was in fact not stolen. May it be said that a boy who jumped into a waterless, summer California river attempted to swim in water? He may have intended to swim in water, but in its absence it cannot be said that he attempted to swim in the nonexistent water. In like manner, a defendant may have intended to receive stolen property but in the absence of any stolen property it cannot be said that there was an attempt to receive stolen property. “Intent is in the mind; it is not the external realities to which intention refers. The fact that defendant was mistaken regarding the external realities did not alter his intention, but simply made it impossible to effectuate it.” (People v. Rojas (1961) 55 Cal.2d 252, 257 [10 Cal.Rptr. 465, 358 P.2d 921, 85 A.L.R.2d 252], quoting from Hall, General Principles of Criminal Law (1947) p. 127.)
When the legislation proscribes receiving property believed by the defendant to be stolen, we may properly consider the issue tendered. Until then, we should remain true to the law as previously interpreted by this court. The statute makes it a crime to receive “any property which has been stolen” (Pen. Code, § 496, subd. 1) and not property believed by the person receiving it to be stolen. The inquiry should end there.
Appellant’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied July 9, 1980. Bird, C. J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.