People v. Knight

MUSSELL, J.

Appellant was arrested by the police officers of San Diego and charged with the crime of issuing a check without funds. On March 22, 1949, he was duly arraigned in the superior court in San Diego and entered a plea of guilty. On March 28th, the time fixed for pronouncement of judgment, appellant was again informed of the nature of the charge against him and of his plea of guilty thereto and was asked by the court if he had any legal cause to show why judgment should not be pronounced against him. When he replied he had none, the court sentenced him to the state prison for the term prescribed by law. Execution of the

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commitment was stayed until March 30, 1949, on which day the “stay was terminated” and the sheriff was ordered to carry out the terms of the commitment.

On March 29th, appellant, at his request, was taken before the District Court of the United States in San Diego and there informed that an indictment had been filed in that court charging him with a violation of the laws of the United States. Appellant thereupon entered a plea of guilty to the charge, was given a sentence of four years in a federal institution, committed to the custody of the Attorney General of the United States and in due time was incarcerated in the United States penitentiary at McNeil’s Island, Washington.

On January 22, 1951, appellant filed in the superior court a “motion to vacate sentence.” This motion was denied and in March, 1951, appellant filed a petition for a writ of error

coram nobis

in the said superior court. After a hearing was had thereon, the petition was denied and this appeal followed. Appellant’s verified petition, which was the only evidence presented by him at the time of the hearing, contains allegations that petitioner, after his arrest on the check charge, was visited by a deputy district attorney “for the purpose of arranging a deal, i.e., if petitioner would not retain counsel to defend himself, a light sentence was in the offing”; that petitioner, relying upon the advice of the prosecutor, waived counsel and entered a plea of guilty on March 23, 1949; that five days thereafter the court pronounced sentence upon petitioner but ordered a two-day “stay of execution”; that pursuant to the two-day stay of execution, petitioner was taken to the United States District Court where he entered a plea of guilty to a federal offense and was sentenced to a period of four years therefor; that on March 30th he was brought back before the superior court and advised that the court had no other alternative than to impose the maximum sentence provided by law for violation of section 476a of the Penal Code; that petitioner was subsequently taken by the United States marshal and placed in the federal penitentiary to serve the aforementioned four-year sentence.