Paraskevopolis

The defendant, on the thirty-first day of October, 1917, in the superior court of Napa County, entered a plea of guilty to an indictment charging him with the crime of murder, and was thereupon sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison at San Quentin for the term of his natural life. On the twenty-first day of October, 1918, the defendant, through his attorney, made a motion to set aside the purported judgment of sentence on the ground, among others, that the trial court, before the pronouncement of sentence, failed to take evidence upon and find and determine the degree of murder of which the defendant was guilty. The motion was denied and the appeal here is from the order denying said motion.

The record here shows that the defendant, upon his original arraignment under the indictment, pleaded not guilty thereto, but that subsequently he asked and was granted permission to withdraw said plea and thereupon entered a plea of guilty to the charge. The minutes of the trial court show that the defendant entered a plea of guilty of murder of the “first degree” and that thereupon “the clerk was directed to enter the plea of guilty of murder of the first degree.” The court then…