Phillips

By an information filed on December 21, 1923, by the district attorney of Los Angeles County the defendant was charged with the crime of forgery, alleged to have been committed on December 11, 1923. The defendant interposed a plea of “not guilty” and also one of “not guilty by reason of insanity.” His trial was set for February 11, 1924, but he absconded and was not re-apprehended until April 29, 1929. His trial upon the first plea came on for hearing on July 25, 1929, and on the second plea, on the day following. The jury returned a verdict of guilty and also found the defendant sane. The court denied his motion for a new trial and he is here upon an appeal from the judgment and from the order refusing to vacate the verdict.

The appellant raises but one question. During the first trial he offered testimony to show that his mental condition was subnormal, it being the contention of his counsel that there is “between the state where a person is normal mentally and the'state where he is legally insane, a fixed twilight zone where he is neither insane nor normal mentally.” This proof was tendered “for the purpose of showing that he was in such a state of mind he did not entertain an…