Giguiere

Defendant was charged by information with a violation of section 470 of the Penal Code. The information charged in Count I that appellant, on or about February 22, 1957, “did, with intent to defraud, sign the name of another person to a check, knowing that he had no authority so to do, and falsely forged an endorsement on a bill of exchange, promissory note or cheek and attempted to pass as true and genuine a check bearing a forged endorsement, knowing the same to be forged, with intent to prejudice, damage or defraud one Merl H. Fincher and/or Ray Randall.” The information also charged appellant in Counts II through IV with four prior felony convictions for which he had served a sentence in a state or federal penal institution.

Defendant pleaded not guilty to the offense charged in Count I and admitted the four prior convictions charged. The case went to trial and the jury returned a verdict of “guilty of a violation of Section 470 of the Penal Code of the State of California, as charged in the information.”

The court denied defendant’s motion for a new trial, denied probation and pronounced judgment. Defendant has appealed from the judgment and from the order denying his…