Burgess

People v. Burgess

Good Law
1988 Cal. App. LEXIS 1197·206 Cal. App. 3d 762·253 Cal. Rptr. 828
Court of Appeal of CaliforniaDecember 16, 1988No. H002975; No. H003998California2,615 words

Opinion

Lead Opinion

Haning, J.

J.—Vernon Lee Burgess appeals his conviction by jury trial of possession of stolen property (Pen. Code, § 496); 1 grand theft (§§ 484/487, subd. 3); offering to sell PCP (Health & Saf. Code, § 11379.5); and robbery (§ 211). His primary contention is that the substitution of a regular juror with an alternate constituted double jeopardy. He has also petitioned for habeas corpus, claiming that his trial counsel’s failure to formally enter a plea of former jeopardy (§ 1016, subd. 5) deprived him of the effective assistance of counsel. We affirm the judgment and deny the petition.

Since appellant does not attack the sufficiency of the evidence, we need not set forth the circumstances of the crimes in great detail. Basically, appellant was positively identified as the person who came into a Stop N’ Go convenience store on March 17, 1986, and took a bottle of liquor without paying. When the clerk tried to stop him, appellant shoved the clerk to the floor and fled. He also sold a stolen video cassette recorder and stolen automobile to undercover officers participating in a “sting” operation. Finally, he arranged for undercover officers to purchase approximately one gram of…

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