People v. Gennaitte

274 P.2d 169, 127 Cal. App. 2d 544, 1954 Cal. App. LEXIS 1375
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 27, 1954
DocketCrim. 5119
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 274 P.2d 169 (People v. Gennaitte) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Gennaitte, 274 P.2d 169, 127 Cal. App. 2d 544, 1954 Cal. App. LEXIS 1375 (Cal. Ct. App. 1954).

Opinion

*546 SHINN, P. J.

On May 2, 1951, an information was filed charging Angelo Michael Gennaitte with the crime of kidnaping for the purpose of robbery on or about January 17, 1946, and alleging that he had been absent from the State of California from October 18, 1946, to September 21, 1950, the date of the issuance of the complaint. The information also alleged that on or about November 10, 1946, defendant was convicted in the Circuit Court of Allen County, Indiana, of the crime of car-taking, a felony, and had served a term - of imprisonment therefor. Defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge and denied the Indiana conviction, but prior to trial admitted the conviction. The case was tried to a jury, which returned a verdict finding defendant guilty as charged, and also that the person kidnaped had suffered bodily harm, with a recommendation of life imprisonment without possibility of parole. (Pen. Code, § 209.) Judgment and sentence were entered accordingly on August 3, 1951, and defendant’s motion for new trial and application for probation were denied on the same date. No appeal was taken from the judgment or order. On June 1, 1953, defendant filed in the superior court a motion to vacate the judgment and verdict, seeking relief in the nature of a writ of aorwm nolis.

In support of his motion to vacate the judgment, defendant alleged, in substance, the following: (1) the prosecution “used improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction” in that the prosecuting attorney charged that defendant had fled the state on October 18, 1946, whereas the truth was, as the prosecution knew, that on October 15, 1946, defendant was before the Circuit Court of Allen County, Indiana, being Sentenced for car theft, and in that during the trial the prosecution alluded to the prior conviction although defendant had admitted it before trial, this being contrary to the provisions of section 1025 of the Penal Code; (2) the deputy public defender failed to render to defendant “fidelity, secrecy, diligence and skill,” violating his “obligation, duty and trust,” and also failed to file notice of appeal within the time allowed, thus depriving defendant of his right to appeal; (3) the verdict and judgment were contrary to the evidence and to law; (4) the defendant is imprisoned without due process of law, and the privileges and immunities and equal protection clauses of the United States Constitution were violated; (5) the trial court failed to instruct the jury correctly in connection with evidence of defendant’s flight from the State of California; (6) the trial court was prejudiced against the defendant, and abused its discretion in overruling defendant’s objections to *547 the prosecutor’s remarks concerning his flight from the state; (7) the defendant was falsely identified in a line-up because he was forced to appear alone • (8) the defendant had recently discovered and obtained new evidence which if presented on the trial must have prevented a conviction, and defendant’s failure to discover and produce this evidence was not due to any fault or lack of diligence on his part. The evidence consisted of what purported to be a transcript of the records of the City Court of Fort Wayne, Indiana, which showed that defendant was convicted on November 5,1945, of “third degree burglary” and was sentenced to serve a term of ninety days in the Indiana State Farm. Defendant argued that this proved conclusively that he was not in Los Angeles County on January 17, 1946, and thus could not have committed the crime described in the information. In support of the specification described in (1) above, defendant also appended what purported to be a transcript of the record of the proceedings in the Circuit Court of Allen County, Indiana, on October 15, 1946, in which defendant was found guilty of vehicle-taking, to show that defendant could not have fled the State of California on October 18, 1946. Defendant’s request for an order directing that he be brought before the court to argue and testify in support of his motion was refused. On June 8, 1953, his motion was denied. Defendant appeals from the order denying the motion. He also seeks to appeal from the original judgment of conviction. The latter appeal comes nearly two years too late and accordingly must be dismissed.

On the appeal, defendant also raises the point that the finding of the prior conviction of car-taking was erroneous, that this is apparent on the face of the record, and that the finding of a prior conviction should be stricken from the judgment. Defendant also requests leave of this court to amend his motion in the superior court to allege that since the denial of his motion he has discovered further evidence which by due diligence he could not have discovered before the date of the denial. Defendant -states in his brief that he mailed a copy of his request to the superior court, and that the superior court treated the copy of the request as a separate petition for a writ of error coram nobis and denied it on March 1, 1954. Petitioner’s attempted appeal from that order was dismissed by this court upon the ground that the superior court was without jurisdiction to entertain a renewal of petitioner’s motion or to entertain an amended petition while the present appeal was pending.

*548 The function of the writ of error coram nobis is to secure relief, where no other remedy exists, from a judgment rendered while there existed some fact which would have prevented its rendition if it had been made known to the trial court, and which, through no negligence or fault of the defendant, was not brought forward before the rendition of judgment. “ The applicant for the writ ‘must show that the facts upon which he relies were not known to him and could not in the exercise of due diligence have been discovered by him at any time substantially earlier than the time of his motion for the writ; otherwise he has stated no ground for relief.’ ” (People v. Adamson, 34 Cal.2d 320, 326-327 [210 P.2d 13], citing People v. Shorts, 32 Cal.2d 502, 513 [197 P.2d 330].) It is essential that the petitioner state in his motion both the probative facts on which his claims rest, and the time and circumstances under which such facts were discovered, so that the court can determine whether he has exercised due diligence. A mere allegation of the ultimate facts or the legal conclusion of diligence is insufficient. (People v. Shorts, supra, at 513.)

As to none of the eight grounds specified by defendant in his motion did he allege any facts from which a court might conclude that his long delay in bringing the matters therein to the attention of the court was justified. For this reason alone, the motion was properly denied. Furthermore, it is well established that coram nobis does not lie for errors cognizable by appeal from the judgment or denial of a motion for new trial. (People v. Adamson, supra; People v. Reid, 195 Cal. 249 [232 P. 457, 36 A.L.R. 1435].)

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
274 P.2d 169, 127 Cal. App. 2d 544, 1954 Cal. App. LEXIS 1375, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-gennaitte-calctapp-1954.