Owens v. Haslett

This appellant was charged with and convicted of the making and uttering of a check drawn upon a bank in which he had no account, in violation of section 476a of the Penal Code. The evidence shows that defendant, a resident of Connecticut, went to Oakland to visit a sister. There, without eating any breakfast on February 10, 1950, he consumed a pint of whiskey and four cans of beer, after which his sister and her husband took him to the highway and left him there to "hitch-hike" his way to Connecticut. In Vallejo, about 4:30 in the afternoon, he went to the drugstore of a Mr. Manfredi, where he represented himself as a doctor living in Vallejo, and presented a check drawn on the Bank of America for $35, signed "Charles J. McNichol, M.D." He bought two cartons of cigarettes and some cough medicine, received the balance in change and departed. Becoming suspicious, and being informed on inquiry that there was no such doctor in the town, Mr. Manfredi called the police department and also the Bank of America. The following day he took the check to the bank, where they advised him that they had no such depositor.