People v. Gutiérrez
People v. Gutiérrez
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
Juan Silvestre .Gutiérrez . was convicted of offering a bribe to Rafael Emmanuelli, a police sergeant, for the purpose of securing immunity from prosecution for the operation of slot machines. The district..attorney exhibited a number of bills and asked the prosecuting witness whether the bills offered as a bribe were like those exhibited. After the witness had answered in the affirmative, counsel for defendant objected to the question and the- judge- said that all bills were alike. Defendant took an exception and the remark made by the district judge is assigned as error. It was not reversible error.
Later, on admitting these bills in evidence over the objection-of defendant, the district judge said: “The court
The testimony of Emmanuelli showed that Gutiérrez was in the possession and control of certain slot machines. Gutierrez, at the time of the offense and of his arrest, carried a satchel which contained some keys and certain small tools. Emmanuelli testified that these keys were used in opening slot machines. Later, this satchel and its contents were offered in evidence and admitted by the district judge as tending to establish ownership of the slot machines. Answering defendant’s objection to the admission of these articles in evidence, the district judge said that he thought this evidence tended to corroborate the testimony of Em-manuelli as to defendant’s interest in the slot machines. Defendant’s connection with these machines was admitted and established by the testimony for the defense. The error, if any, of the district judge cannot now be regarded as a ground for reversal.
There was no error in permitting Emmanuelli, over defendant’s objection, to describe the manner in which slot machines are operated, in order to show that a slot machine, when used as a gambling device, is a lottery.
During the course of defendant’s cross-examination of the prosecuting witness, Emmanuelli, the district attorney
Rosario Negron testified, as witness for defendant, that she was employed by the same firm as was the defendant; that her employer had dictated a letter to sergeant Em-manuelli; that she had typed the letter, placed it in a sealed envelope and had then placed the envelope in the drawer of her desk where there was another sealed envelope which contained ten dollars in bills, the balance of a week’s salary which witness had put away'for herself; and that when Gutierrez called for the letter, which he was to take to Em-manuelli, witness by mistake gave him the pay envelope. After counsel for defendant and the district attorney had finished the examination of this witness, the district judge asked her why she had not addressed the envelope which contained the letter to Emmanuelli. Her answer was that it was not the custom to address envelopes containing personal letters to be delivered by an employee. Defendant did not object to the judge’s question. Even if counsel had objected and had taken an exception to an adverse ruling on such objection, the conduct of the district judge could not be deemed an abuse of discretion.
The district judge denied a motion for a new trial. The principal ground of the motion was that the verdict was contrary to the evidence. The gist of the argument is that there was no prosecution pending against Gutiérrez and that what he said at the time of the offer evinced a purpose to obtain exemption from persecution rather than from prosecution. Appellant assumes the necessity of a pending prosecution. No authority is cited in support of this theory. Several days before the incident which gave rise to the
The last assignment specifies error in a number of isolated extracts from the charge to the jury. Some of these statements are open to criticism. If counsel for defendant had called the attention of the trial judge to these defects, he would have had an opportunity to correct them. No ex
The judgment appealed from must be affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.