California Court of Appeal

Defendant's conviction and sentence for conspiracy to defraud another and grand theft, arising from her participation in widespread and sophisticated check forgery scheme, are affirmed over claims that: 1) the trial court erred in refusing to hold a hearing to determine whether defendant was a minor at the time she committed the alleged offenses; 2) the court erred in failing to stay the criminal proceedings in favor of juvenile court jurisdiction of defendant's case, as defendant was 17 years old when she agreed to sell her account information to a co-defendant; 3) the juvenile court should have presumptive jurisdiction over a matter in which the alleged criminal conduct begins when the defendant is a minor and continues after the defendant's 18th birthday; 4) the court violated defendant's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by admitting in evidence pretrial statements she made to postal inspectors before she had been given Miranda warnings; 5) the court erred by admitting evidence of defendant's admissions to postal investigators because the admissions were induced by a promise that she would not be prosecuted if she told them the truth; 6) the prosecutor engaged in misconduct when the prosecutor asked defendant a series of questions that effectively forced her to testify the postal inspectors had lied on the witness stand; and 7) there was insufficient evidence to support her conviction for conspiracy to defraud.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/10/2007
• Published 10/10/2007

Judges

• AARON, J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Laura L. Furness, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant., Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Scott C. Taylor, Supervising Deputy Attorney General and Kelley Johnson, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.