Michaels

Defendant De Cesaro was sentenced, upon plea of guilty, to a term of imprisonment in the state prison. After judgment he moved the trial court that the judgment be set aside and that he be permitted to withdraw his plea of guilty and to enter a plea of not guilty. An order was made denying the motion and from the order De Cesaro appealed.

The ground of the motion was that, before entering his plea of guilty, in a conversation between a deputy district attorney and a deputy sheriff, held within appellant’s hearing, it was said that a lighter punishment would be inflicted upon him if he pleaded guilty than if he pleaded not guilty and were found guilty upon trial. It is claimed that appellant entered the plea of guilty under a fraud thus alleged to have been practiced upon him, and that, therefore, his motion should have been granted. In connection with this claim it is to be observed that appellant had counsel present at the time of the conversation—indeed, the same counsel who represents him here.

The fact, if it was a fact, that the conversation actually occurred between the officers was averred in affidavits presented to the court. In the discharge of our duty under the law to…