Davenport v. People
| Decision Date | 01 December 1958 |
| Docket Number | No. 18609,18609 |
| Parties | Tim Tonze DAVENPORT, Plaintiff in Error, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Defendant in Error. |
| Court | Colorado Supreme Court |
Tim Tonze Davenport, pro se.
Duke W. Dunbar, Atty. Gen., Frank E. Hickey, Deputy Atty. Gen., John W. Patterson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendant in error.
Plaintiff in error as defendant in the trial court was charged by information with the crime of forgery. Trial to a jury resulted in conviction. Motion for new trial was denied and defendant sentenced to a term in the penitentiary. From the judgment and sentence he seeks review by writ of error.
Two grounds are urged by defendant upon which he relies for reversal: 1. That it was error to allow the witness Sparn to testify to a similar offense committed the day following the offense charged in the information, and 2. that the evidence does not support the verdict.
Taking up the points in inverse order from that above stated, we find in the record evidence that the forged instrument forming the basis of the charge was a check drawn on the Palisades National Bank, dated September 11, 1957, payable to Tim Davenport and purportedly made by Arnold Kimminau. It was endorsed by Davenport and cashed by him at a teller's window in the United States Bank in Grand Junction on the same day as that appearing on the face of the instrument. A telephone number purporting to be that of the maker of the check was written thereon but was false. It is not disputed that defendant was the person who presented the check for cashing. Mr. Kimminau was called as a witness and testified that he had not signed the check and he had not authorized anyone else to sign for him. Evidence presented by the prosecution, in the nature of a statement purported to have been given by the defendant to one of the police officers, reveals that the check had actually been written by a man by the name of Willingham and that the defendant was present at the time of such writing. The check, after it was made out Willingham, was handed to defendant, who endorsed it and cashed it. There was also evidence that the defendant had a pad of counter checks of the Palisades National Bank in his pocket. The forged check was a counter check of the Palisades National Bank. On September 12, 1957, the day after the offense charged in the information, defendant tendered to the witness Sparn a check purportedly signed by Kimminau and payable to the defendant. Sparn refused to cash this check. Whereupon defendant returned to his room, tore up the check and flushed it down a toilet.
Defendant took the stand in his own defense and attempted to explain the transaction. He denied knowing the check was forged. Rebuttal evidence produced by the people, if believed, discredited defendant's explanation of the use of Kimminau's name on the...
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