Hutchings

A jury found the defendant guilty of four counts of passing forged checks (Pen. Code, § 470) and guilty of one count of passing checks with knowledge of insufficient funds (Pen. Code, § 476a). The court sentenced him to state prison for a minimum term of six months under section 1202b of the Penal Code. On appeal from the judgment of conviction, the issue is whether defendant’s confession was properly admitted into evidence as a voluntary statement.

The trial court, pursuant to section 402 of the Evidence Code and Jackson v. Denno (1964) 378 U.S. 368 [ 12 L.Ed.2d 908 , 84 S.Ct. 1774 , 1 A.L.R.3d 1205 ], held a hearing out of the presence of the jury to determine whether defendant’s confession was voluntarily given. Typically, there was some conflict between the police officer’s testimony and defendant’s testimony about the circumstances under which the statement was made. In resolving the factual conflict, the trial court expressly found that defendant had been advised of his constitutional (Miranda) rights, that there was a knowledgeable waiver of those rights, that the police officer’s testimony was more believable than defendant’s testimony, that the confession was…