People v. Gurule

FOURT, J.

This is an appeal from an order denying appellant’s petition for a writ of error

coram nobis.

On October 11, 1957, in the Superior Court in Los Angeles County, the appellant was found guilty of a violation of section 11500, Health and Safety Code. He was charged with two prior felony convictions, however the judge made no finding with reference to either of such prior convictions. The appellant made an application for probation. On November 1, 1957, the defendant’s application for probation was denied and he was sentenced to the state prison as a first offender. There was no motion for a new trial and no appeal was taken from the judgment.

About June 13, 1958, the appellant filed a petition for a writ of error

coram nobis

in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. On June 26, 1958, a hearing on said petition was had and the petition was denied. This appeal is from the denial of such petition.

The appellant contends that the trial court committed error at the trial in that the identity of the informant used by the police to locate the appellant was never revealed. We do not have the benefit of a reporter’s transcript in this particular case, and are therefore unaware as to what the testimony might have been at the trial.

In any event, “In this state a motion to vacate a judgment in the nature of a petition for

coram nobis

is a remedy of narrow scope. (Citing cases.) Its purpose is to secure relief, where no other remedy exists, from a judgment rendered while there existed some fact which would have prevented its rendition if the trial court had known it and which, through no negligence or fault of the defendant, was not then known to the court. (Citing cases.) The applicant for the writ ‘must show that the facts upon which he relies were not known to him and could not in the exercise of due diligence have been discovered by him at any time substantially earlier than the time of his motion for the writ; otherwise he has

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