People v. Black

WOOD (W. J.), J.,

pro tem.

Appellant was accused by information filed by the district attorney of selling intoxicating liquor. He entered a plea of guilty on July 6, 1927, and on July 9, 1927, was sentenced to imprisonment for six months. On July 25, 1927, he filed in the superior court of Riverside County a petition for a writ of error

coram nobis,

in which he set forth that his plea of guilty had been entered by him “through the agency of duress, fraud and deception.” He alleged that one William Rush had been his employer at the Oasis pool-hall in the city of Blythe; that Rush had told him before the entry of his plea that if he would state to the court that he (appellant) had a lease on the premises and was running the business where the liquor was alleged to have been sold, it would avoid implicating the said Rush; that he (Rush) would pay any fine that would be imposed and that appellant would not receive a jail sentence. The petition further sets forth: “And he your petitioner believing that the said William Rush would be able to do the things that he said he would do all of which were believed by your petitioner which have hereinbefore been related and all of which the said William Rush has failed to do and all of which William Rush was without right of authority to promise to do or to perform and all of which the said William Rush knew, all of which was a deception upon your petitioner and all of which caused

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your petitioner to make the statements which he did make in the Superior Court, County and State aforesaid. Your petitioner further states, avers, and alleges the facts to be that the statements made by him in such Superior Court

where

inaccurate and untrue and caused the Court to render a judgment which it did upon an assumed existence of fact and condition which in truth did not exist and the non-existence of which would have prevented the rendition of a judgment that was rendered.”

It appears from the clerk’s transcript that on July 26, 1927, the petition came regularly on for hearing, at which time appellant testified as a witness and certain documentary evidence was admitted. The cause was argued and petitioner’s attorney moved for permission to file an amended petition. The motion was granted and the matter continued to August 5, 1927. An amended petition was filed on July 30th, to which an answer was filed by the district attorney on August 5, 1927. A motion to dismiss the amended petition was filed by the district attorney on August 5th. The record shows that this motion was argued and denied on August 5, 1927, whereupon the court made an order that the matter be continued to August 11, 1927, “for further hearing.” The minutes of August 11th show that the motion for a writ was argued and submitted. Nothing further appears to have been done until October 8, 1927, at which time this minute order appears: “This matter having heretofore come on regularly for hearing and the court having heard the testimony of witnesses and the arguments of counsel and having taken said matter under submission for further consideration. Therefore, the court at this time renders its decision in open court and orders that the writ of error