Goodwin

Gregory Cardell Goodwin was convicted by a jury of two counts of first degree burglary (Pen. Code, § 459) with findings as to each count that the burglary was of an inhabited dwelling within the meaning of the probation-restriction provision of Penal Code section 462, subdivision (a). He contends on appeal that the trial court erred in instructing the jury . . . as to how to view a witness’s testimony which is willfully false in part or contains discrepancies (CALJIC No. 2.21). He also argues that the burglary convictions must be reduced to second degree because the jury failed to specifically determine the degree of the burglaries.

Facts

Virginia Byrne had been the resident manager of an apartment complex on Cherry Avenue in Los Angeles for 11 years and in July 1986 hired appellant as a maintenance man for the apartments. On August 3, 1986, Byrne, as was her custom, put the rent money she had collected from the tenants in the top drawer of her desk in the office which was adjacent to the apartment in which she lived. Later that day, Byrne discovered that $900 in cash was missing. Thereafter, she placed the rent money in a brown wooden box kept underneath a metal box in…