People v. Miller

The defendant John Miller was convicted by a jury of the crime of first degree burglary and has appealed from the judgment of conviction therein and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

The record discloses the following facts: On the night of August 24, 1923, Bert Richter, a locomotive fireman, while sleeping in one of the bedrooms of a lodging-house situated on Seventh Street, Oakland, was awakened about midnight by the electric light in the hall shining through the doorway leading from said hall into his room. Looking up, he observed the form of a man passing out of his room through said doorway into the hall. He then heard the man proceed up the hall toward the rear of the house to the bathroom. Richter immediately reached out to a chair which was standing at the head of his bed, to ascertain if his clothes, which he -had placed there upon retiring, had been disturbed-, finding that his overalls, which contained his watch and other personal belongings had been stolen, he arose from the bed, put on his trousers, and stood at the doorway just inside of his room awaiting the return of this person from the bathroom. The defendant, who was a stranger and not a roomer…