Harris

The defendant was convicted of grand theft upon an information in four counts charging that on the fourteenth day of August, 1931, he took the property of O. G. Gould, consisting of $250. Second count is to the effect that the defendant, on the twenty-second day of September, 1931, took the property of R. J. Reilly, consisting of the sum of $250. The third count charges that on the twenty-fifth day of August, 1931, the defendant took $200, the property of one Dave Ogilvie. The fourth count charges that on the fourteenth day of August, 1931, the defendant took the sum of $250, the property of L. A. Hallstron. The defendant’s motion for a new trial being denied, an appeal is prosecuted therefrom, and from the judgment of conviction.

The record shows that the defendant was conducting gasoline filling stations in the city of Sacramento; that in the conduct of said business he required the above-named persons as employees to deposit with him the sums of money mentioned in the information. The defense is that the money so deposited with the defendant was a loan, and not placed in his hands as security for honest actions on the part of the employees in accounting for sales of gasoline…