Taylor

—The defendant was accused of the crime of grand theft, it being charged that he took the property of one Mary A. Colver consisting of a promissory note for $6,103.88 and a mortgage securing the same. He was found guilty by the court sitting without a jury, and has appealed from the judgment.

It developed at the trial that the defendant learned that Mrs. Colver owned this note and mortgage and approached her with a proposition of buying them. Mrs. Colver informed him that she would make no agreement with him except through her lawyer. The defendant, after having made an appointment, took Mrs. Colver to this attorney’s office on November 4, 1936.

This attorney testified that the two came to his office on that day; that the defendant told him he had arranged with Mrs. Colver to buy the note and that he proposed to pay $4,000 for it by giving his personal note payable at the rate of $50 per month, the entire amount to be paid within one year and this note to be secured by a trust deed on property near Mojave; that he told the defendant they would not accept this security; that thereupon the defendant said he would give as security for his note 1,000 shares of stock in the “Sunshine…