People v. Hanselman

Citations

• 76 Cal. 460
• 18 P. 425
• 1888 Cal. LEXIS 909

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Larceny—Information must Allege Ownership of Stolen Property. — Under the Penal Code, an information for larceny must aver that the thing alleged to have been stolen was the property of some person other than the one charged with stealing it. An information which omits such averment is fatally defective, and a judgment of conviction rendered thereon will be reversed.</p> <p>Id. —Consent to Taking. —The prosecuting witness, a constable, for the purpose of detecting the persons who had been committing thefts in the j¡ neighborhood, on the night of the alleged larceny disguised himself and ¿feigned drunkenness. After staggering around the streets a while, he lay down in an alley and pretended to be in a drunken stupor. Shortly after, the defendant and another person came to him and took from his jpocket the money alleged to have been stolen. He was perfectly conscious at the time, and made no resistance, and intended that any thief who tried it should be allowed to take the money, in order that a case | of larceny might be made out against him. He had no previous suspicion, however, of the defendant, and was surprised at his participation in the act. Held, that' tbe Acts of the prosecuting witness did not amount to a consent to the taking.</p>