People v. Kuranoff

VALLÉE, J.

Defendant was convicted of second degree robbery by the court sitting without a jury. The charge was that he had forcibly taken $869 from the person of Florence L. Nicholas. Mrs. Nicholas was not present at the trial. The court, over the objection of defendant, permitted the People to read in evidence her testimony taken at the preliminary examination of the defendant. Defendant urges that it was not shown that Mrs. Nicholas could not, with due diligence, be found within the state.

Penal Code, section 686, provides that in a criminal prosecution the defendant is entitled “to be…