People v. Hunt

[771]

KERRIGAN, J.

The defendant was charged by information with the crime of forgery. He was tried and convicted. This appeal is from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

The defendant contends that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict. This contention is based on the theory that while the evidence may be sufficient to show that the check described in the information was forged, it does not sustain the finding of the jury that it was uttered by the defendant with knowledge that it was forged.

The check was for the sum of fifty dollars, and was made payable to “Cash.” It purported to have been made by one E. R. Hayden, but the signature was forged. When the check was presented to the paying teller of the bank on which it was drawn, it being what is known as a “cash check,” it was promptly paid without the requirement of identification, notwithstanding that the person presenting it was a stranger to the teller. There was, however, something about the transaction that aroused a slight suspicion in the mind of this official concerning the regularity of the matter, so that when a little later in the afternoon E. R. Hayden came into the bank, he called Hayden’s attention to the check, who at once characterized the paper as a forgery. The description of the man who cashed the check, given by the paying teller, fitted in a general way the defendant, who had desk room in Hayden’s office. Hayden immediately went to his office; and on examining his desk found that several blank checks had been extracted therefrom, one of which bore the number of the check here involved. The next day, on being requested by Hayden for a small loan, defendant said that he had but a few cents on his person; but on being searched by the detective who was within call, it was disclosed that he had two twenty dollar pieces, a five dollar piece and three dollars in silver coin. The check had been paid by the teller of the bank with two twenty dollar pieces, one five dollar piece, four silver dollars and two half dollars; so that the amount of money thus found on the defendant was made up of coins of exactly the same denomination (allowance being made for the difference of two dollars .in the amount) as the sum paid by the bank teller on the forged cheek on the previous day. The paying teller identified the defendant as the person who cashed the cheek. The