People v. Epperson

California Court of Appeal Jul 18, 1955 No. Crim. 5366Published

Before: White

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Holding. The court held that the evidence was sufficient to support a forgery conviction and that the defendant's pretrial statements were admissible as admissions rather than confessions, thus not requiring preliminary proof of voluntariness.

Issues

Whether the evidence was sufficient to support the judgment of conviction for forgery.
Whether the defendant's pretrial statements constituted confessions requiring a foundation of voluntariness for admission into evidence.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“The evidence conclusively establishes that the person whose name was alleged to have been forged was a real person; that his name was signed to the check without his authority, and that the check was cashed with intent to defraud.”

“Since the statements of appellant and those by defendant Bryant in the presence of the former did not amount to confessions as that term is known to the law, their admission into evidence was not error.”

WHITE, P. J.

In an information filed by the district attorney of Los Angeles County the defendants were jointly charged with the crime of forgery of endorsement (Pen. Code, §470).

Following the entry of pleas of not guilty and waiver of trial by jury, the case of the People was by stipulation submitted on the transcript of the testimony adduced at the preliminary examination. Defendant Epperson testified as a witness in his own behalf. Thereafter, the court adjudged each defendant guilty of the crime charged in the informa

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tion. Defendant Epperson was sentenced to imprisonment in the Los Angeles county jail for the term of one year. From the judgment of conviction he prosecutes this appeal.

Concerning the factual background surrounding this prosecution the record reflects that the defendants took a check from a mailbox at 905 East 40th Place in the city of Los Angeles. The check was drawn on the Bank of America payable to Robert A. Tracy in the amount of $17.29 on the disability insurance account of the Department of Employment of California. At the time of the preliminary hearing and the trial, the check bore the endorsement of Robert Tracy and subendorsement of Frederick Bryant.

G. W. Smith, a police officer of the city of Los Angeles, assigned to the forgery division, was the arresting officer in the case. On July 28, 1954, he had a conversation with defendant Epperson in which the latter stated that he signed the name Robert Tracy and used a pawn ticket which had been supplied by his codefendant Bryant in attempting to duplicate as closely as possible the true signature of Robert Tracy. In a subsequent conversation, in the presence of Epperson, defendant Bryant admitted that he took the check into a Safeway store and cashed it in the presence of Epperson. Bryant further admitted to Officer Smith that he was at first going to represent himself as Tracy, but then decided to sign his true name underneath the endorsement of Robert Tracy on the back of the check. Both men admitted that they had been waiting at the 40th Place address all day for the mailman to deliver the check.

Charles Hurd, a clerk for Safeway Stores at 4077 Avalon Boulevard, testified that he saw the check in question in defendant Bryant’s hand when Bryant came up to the cash register, on or about the 23d of February, 1954. Hurd cashed the check at the request of Bryant and gave him in exchange a small amount of groceries and the rest of the $17.29 in cash. At the time Hurd cashed the check the signature Robert Tracy and the signature Frederick Bryant were on it. Neither signature was written in Hurd’s presence.

People v. Epperson

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WHITE, P. J.

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