People v. Ceballos
Supreme Court of California
12 Cal.3d 470, 526 P.2d 241 (1974)
- Written by Craig Conway, LLM
Facts
J. Don Ceballos (defendant) lived in an apartment above a garage, but he sometimes slept in the garage which contained about $2,000 worth of property. After noticing that the lock on his garage doors was bent and there were pry marks on the doors, he installed a mounted pistol aimed at the center of the garage doors. The pistol was connected by a wire to one of the doors so that it would discharge if the door was opened slightly. Two unarmed teenage boys, who had caused the previous pry marks, returned to Ceballos’ garage after noticing he was not present. One of the boys removed the lock and pulled the door and was struck in the face with a bullet fired from the trap gun. Ceballos was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. At trial, one of the boys testified that they did not know if they were going to steal anything until they could get inside the garage and look around. Ceballos admitted to setting the trap gun because he wanted to protect his property. Ceballos was found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and he appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Burke, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 802,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
