People v. Grey

GRIFFIN, P. J. Defendant appeals from a judgment of conviction and order denying a motion for a new trial after conviction by a jury for violation of section 470 of the Penal Code (check forgery). Defendant was charged with and admitted a prior felony conviction of forgery in Maryland in 1950.

The substance of the evidence in support of the conviction in this case is as follows: Calvin Coolidge Sandidge testified that in December 1957 he was employed by a Mr. and Mrs. Pitts as a houseman in their home in Palm Springs. About December 24, 1957, Sandidge, pursuant to defendant’s request, stole some of his employers’ personalized checks and turned them over to defendant. Defendant then forged the checks in the presence of Sandidge, making them payable to Willie West (a fictitious person) and forging the name of Zachary Pitts as drawer. After giving this testimony, Sandidge changed his testimony and stated that he himself had made the checks and that defendant was merely present in his home at the time Sandidge signed the checks. This latter testimony of Sandidge was immediately impeached by the district attorney when he proved that Sandidge had, in a preliminary hearing and in conversations with a police investigator, made prior inconsistent statements. Defendant was identified by a bank teller employed at the Palm Springs branch of the Bank of America as the person who had approached her teller’s window on December 24,1957, and presented a check payable to “Willie West” and ostensibly drawn on the account of Zachary Pitts for $355 for payment. As identification, the defendant produced a police card containing the name “Willie West,” and in the presence of the teller he endorsed the check “Willie West.” He then received payment of the face amount of the check. Christine Weeks, another teller at the same bank, testified that on December 24, 1957, defendant appeared at her window at the rear of the bank with a cheek ostensibly drawn by Zachary Pitts payable to the order of “Willie West” for $325. He endorsed the check in her presence but she refused to cash it when he told her that he had no identification, having left his wallet in his car. Subsequently, on December 26,1957, defendant again appeared at the teller’s window of Christine Weeks and again presented the check for $325 for payment. At this time he offered a police card with [686]the name “Willie West” as identification. Miss Weeks questioned the authenticity of the cheek and left to confer with a bank official regarding it. While she was gone, the defendant became nervous and turned to a Mr. Driskell who was standing in line behind him and said, “Would you tell the lady I will be back in a few minutes ? I am double parked on the street. ’ ’ Defendant thereupon ran out a side door of the bank, leaving the cheek behind. Mr. Zachary Pitts testified that the checks presented to the bank by the defendant appeared to be his personal checks but that the handwriting on the checks was not that of himself or his wife, and that at no time had he given authority to the defendant or Sandidge to write checks in his name.