Whitaker

The appellant herein appeals from a judgment based upon an information consisting of three counts, each of which charged him and one Val Amthor with the crime of forgery, under section 470 of the Penal Code. The appeal is also from an order denying his motion for new trial. Appellant was granted a separate trial, and a jury found him guilty under each count. The counts are alike in all respects material here and embody copies of certain checks drawn on the First National Bank at Vernon, California, signed by R. E. Dusenberry, dated, respectively, the 7th, 14th, and 20th of November, 1923, and payable to “C. R. McPhearson Electric Co,” “ C. R. McPhearson” and “C. R. McPhearson Electrical Co.” It is charged that the defendants, without authority therefor, indorsed each of said checks in the name of the payee, and thereupon unlawfully, knowingly, falsely, fraudulently, and feloniously uttered, published, and passed them as true and genuine, with intent to cheat and defraud the payees and the bank.

There is no evidence in the record that either of the payees named in the cheeks in fact existed, and a witness for the people testified that he had been in business at Los Angeles for a…