People v. Wignall

JAMES, J.

Defendant was informed against for the crime of criminal conspiracy under the provisions of section

[424]

182 of the Penal Code, as amended by Stats. 1919, p. 170, and especially subdivision 4 thereof. It was charged that he conspired with three other persons named in the information to defraud the First National Bank of Yorba Linda of the sum of $827.30. The information in its statement of facts constituting the offense further alleged that the conspirators deposited two certain cheeks, drawn upon a San Francisco bank for the aggregate sum of $2,250, with the former bank, and that they represented that the checks were good, and upon such representations obtained from said bank $300 in cash and a cashier’s draft or check for the sum of $527.30. It was charged that the cheeks first mentioned were worthless, which the conspirators at the time well knew. Of the four men concerned in the transaction it appears that the defendant alone was apprehended, tried, and convicted. His appeal purports to be from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

[1]

As to the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the judgment) no question can well be made. It was shown that four men, the defendant being one of them, appeared at Yorba Linda, and, pretending to be interested in oil lands, expressed their desire to purchase an option for a lease on certain lands then controlled by the president of the bank mentioned. This defendant was represented as a geologist, and another of the four men as an attorney who was passing upon the regularity of the transaction. One of the remaining men took the part of the chauffeur. The land in question was viewed and this defendant reported to his confreres that it looked “all right.” The price to be paid for the option was $500. One of the men, called “Franklin,” produced the two checks, drawn upon San Francisco banks, representing that he had the money there. He went with the president of the Yorba Linda bank to the latter institution, deposited the two checks, and in turn drew a check for $500, which was used in an escrow made in connection with the option transaction. He also was allowed to draw the sum of $300 in cash against the purported deposit, and also asked for and received a draft or cashier’s check for the sum of $527.30, which at his request was issued payable to one He Witt. Without loss of time the defendant here, who had been known to the banker at Yorba Linda as “Sharky,” appeared in a Los Angeles bank seeking to cash the cashier’s