People v. Henderson

Appeal from judgment entered upon jury verdict convicting defendant of the crime of contributing to the delinquency of a minor by giving her intoxicating liquor. Appellant urges insufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict and prejudicial error and misconduct alleged to have occurred during trial of the cause and in connection with charging the jury. It is unnecessary to pass definitely upon the first contention as said error, which under other circumstances might be nonprejudicial, may well have swayed the conclusions of this jury in view of the conflicting evidence and its doubtful sufficiency to warrant a conviction. The following is a resume of some 2'00 pages of testimony taken on the trial.

The complaining witness was a Mexican high school girl, approaching 16 years of age, who resided at 1459 East 18th Street, Los Angeles, some five blocks' from the general dry goods store and postoffice operated by defendant, a middle-aged negro. Her story is that she had known the store, and defendant in connection therewith, for some two years; that on the afternoon of December 24, 1933, she left home with a man in a Ford car, a friend of her mother, who dropped her off at the…