People v. Lee

Appellants, with Lee Chong, James Loo You and a woman named Lonie Chan, were charged by a complaint filed in the Police Court of the City of Oakland with the offenses of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery and extortion. On December 10, 1931, after a preliminary examination the charges against said Lee Chong and James Loo You were dismissed, and appellants, with Lonie Chan, were held to answer to the superior court on the charge of robbery. The district attorney of Alameda County thereafter filed an information charging the four last mentioned with that crime, and later, over their objection, filed an amended information by which was added a second count charging them with the crime of attempt to commit robbery.

The four were duly tried, and Lonie Chan was acquitted on both counts. Appellants were acquitted on the first count and convicted of the crime of attempt to commit robbery of the second degree. Motions by the latter in arrest of judgment and for a new trial were denied, and the appeal is from the order denying a new trial and the judgment of conviction.

Appellants claim that it was error to permit the filing of the amended complaint for the reason that an attempt to…