Green

Defendant herein was prosecuted under the provisions of section 270, Penal Code, which declare it to be an offense for a parent to willfully omit to furnish necessary food, clothing, shelter, or medical attendance for his child. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and defendant, having been sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of one year, has appealed from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

The evidence taken at the trial showed without dispute or conflict that defendant had never been married to nor had he lived with the mother of the child whom he was alleged to have failed to furnish with the necessaries of life, and no contention is made upon this appeal that the child was other than illegitimate. The mother testified that she had held illicit relation with defendant as well as with one other man, not her husband, prior to the birth of the child. Section 270 of the Penal Code seems to have been enacted with the purpose of furnishing a complement to those sections of the Civil Code which determine the obligations of parents to support and maintain their children. By the sections of the Civil Code it is determined what…