Evanoff

The defendant’s conviction of grand larceny rests on evidence that by the execution of a eom plicated mechanical contrivance so constructed that when blank paper was inserted in one portion, the machine first gave forth sounds of electric sparking and whirling of wheels, and then ground out genuine dollar bills, the blank paper being coiled inside the machine, he induced the complaining witness to deliver to him one thousand five hundred dollars, which the complaining witness drew from the bank. The money was given to the defendant on the representation that he was going to Chicago and possibly to New York to buy the required paper to print more money. The defendant left the machine with the complaining witness and warned him against using it, saying, “Don’t touch the machine until I come back, because it is liable to explode.” After his arrest, the defendant, being asked whether he took the money from the complaining witness, replied to the arresting officer: “I will give him back all his money and more too if he helps me out, and you help me, too.”

The indictment under section 954 of the Penal Code was in two counts, the first for obtaining money under false pretenses and the…