Martinez

When victim Ruth Michiel ran into financial difficulties, she was afraid that two houses she owned would go into foreclosure. Defendant Paul Stephen Martinez offered to help her; at his direction, she signed a stack of documents. Later, she learned that a trust deed had been recorded against one of the houses, purportedly to secure a $25,000 debt to defendant. Michiel did not deny signing the trust deed but denied doing so knowingly; moreover, the notary whose name appeared on it denied ever notarizing it.

Defendant was found guilty of forgery of the notary’s signature (count 1) and forgery of Michiel’s signature (count 3) (Pen. Code, § 470, subd. (d)), forgery of a public seal (count 2) (Pen. Code, § 472), and recording a forged instrument (count 4) (Pen. Code, § 115, subd. (a)). He was placed on probation for three years.

Defendant contends that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction for forging Michiel’s signature, because there was no evidence that her signature was not genuine and no evidence that he used any affirmative misrepresentations concerning the nature of the trust deed to procure her genuine signature. We disagree; there was evidence…