Dykes

Jointly accused of armed robbery, Leroy Eugene Dykes, Jr., and Ruben Frank Dorrough, Jr., were tried without jury; Dorrough was acquitted; Dykes was convicted and appeals; we appointed counsel.

The grounds of appeal are that the court erred in the receipt of evidence of Dykes’ silence in the face of an accusatory statement; also that it was error to receive evidence of Dykes’ withdrawn plea of guilty.

At 1 a.m., while parked in the Star-Lite Bowl in Burbank, a young man and his young woman companion were robbed at gun point by two men (at least one of whom was masked) who came and departed in a blue and light-colored Pontiac. After robbing the couple one of the men shot up the right front tire of the victims’ car and both men went to the rear of the car and fired shots. The front tire was deflated and a “Beauty Rim” on the left rear wheel was shot off. Officers came to the scene; they found a .45 caliber semiautomatic casing near the right front wheel and three 9 mm. casings near the left rear wheel. Neither of the victims of the robbery identified either of the defendants at the trial. The defendants did not testify. There was evidence that the defendants were arrested shortly…