Mendoza

Defendant Ralph Charles Mendoza was charged with two counts of robbery (Pen. Code, § 211) and with two prior felony convictions. In a separate information his codefendants, Joe Floyd Goessman and Richard Brown, were also charged with two counts of robbery based on the same facts alleged in the information against Mendoza. It was also alleged in the latter information that at the time of the commission of the offense the defendant Goessman was armed with a deadly weapon. A motion for a new trial was denied and the three defendants were sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison. Defendant Mendoza appeals from the judgment of conviction and the order denying his motion for a new trial.

During the early morning hours on February 12, 1958, David Miramontes and Edwin Austin, students at the San Diego State College, were working part time at the P & R Liquor Store in San Diego. As was their custom, they removed all money in the cash register in excess of $100 and placed it in the safe, leaving $15 or $20 in silver and the rest in currency in the cash register for the next day. Fifteen or 20 minutes later appellant and defendant Goessman entered the store. Austin asked them if he…