People v. Smith

The defendant was convicted upon information charging him and one Edward Egan jointly with the crime of robbery. The two were separately tried and the defendant has appealed from the order denying him a new trial and from the judgment.

The facts of the case are that on the twenty-eighth day of October, 192'4, the complaining witnesses, Mr. and Mrs. P. I. Jacoby, returned to their home in Jackson street, in the city and county of San Francisco, at about 12 o’clock midnight and retired to their sleeping apartments upon one of the upper floors of the building. Their home had two entrances, one in the front of the house, through which they entered, and another in the rear, which was known as the tradesmen’s entrance, and was used by servants of the family. When the Jacobys entered their sleeping apartment two men, both masked and armed with black automatic pistols, confronted them and after robbing them of jewelry of the value of over #12,000, locked them in a closet and left without disturbing anything else in the house. When the Jacobys escaped from the closet they telephoned to the police and immediately gave them a description of the bandits and of the jewelry which had been…