Billingsley

Defendants werecharged with violation of section 211, Penal Code (robbery armed with a gun). Defendant Billingsley was also charged with a prior conviction of two counts of larceny. The jury found both guilty of robbery in the first degree and of being armed with a deadly weapon. It also found the prior conviction of defendant Billingsley to be true. Both defendants appeal from the judgment and the order denying new trial.

Questions Presented

1. Sufficiency of evidence of possession of a gun.

2. Did the court order a conviction?

Evidence

About noon February 15, 1957, Robert C. Chenault, a postal employee, having just cashed his pay check ($130.15) at a bank, was walking east on Page Street, San Francisco. He was carrying his 2-year old daughter in his arms. At a point near to 530 Page Street defendant Yolo stopped him. Yolo showed him a card with the name Bessie Smith, Eagle Rock Hotel, Pea Green Street, on it and asked its location. Thereupon defendant Billingsley “came up and placed what looked to be a gun in my, in my side, in my ribs; told me to hold still or don’t move, and he quickly took his other hand and took my money out of my pocket, and he and the other fellow…