Molera

A jury found defendant guilty of first degree burglary and found that the charges of three prior felony convictions were true. Defendant was sentenced to prison but was not found to be an habitual criminal. He appeals.

Defendant was caught by police in the act of burglary, and testified that he committed it. The only fact issue concerned degree, and turned on his throwing of a hammer when surprised in the burglarized premises. If this was an assault, the burglary was of the first degree; if not, it was of the second degree (Pen. Code, § 460). The jury found against him on this issue, and he does not suggest insufficiency of the evidence.

He asserts that he was denied due process when the clerk read to the jury, at the outset of the trial, the portion of the information alleging the three prior convictions. Although he had denied the priors and concedes that the issue thus raised was for the jury, he contends that it should have been separately tried to the same jury, and that his trial on the present offense should have been unclouded by any reference to his earlier convictions.

But a long line of California authorities upholds the constitutionality of the statutes (Pen. Code,…