The defendant appeals from his conviction of one count of forgery in the first degree and five counts of forgery in the second degree, and the sentences therefor.
1. The verdict and judgment were authorized by evidence that the defendant attempted to cash a stolen check to pay for certain attempted purchases; that when the store owner refused to cash the check, the defendant fled rapidly in an automobile; that the automobile, when subsequently stopped by the sheriff, contained the defendant as a passenger and, as revealed by a search under warrant, the crumpled-up check he had attempted to cash (at his feet) and five more checks stolen from the same maker (three under the driver’s seat and two in the glove compartment).
2. Enumeration of error 1 contends that the checks introduced in evidence, ownership or proprietary interest in which the accused denied, and which were taken from the automobile of another in which the accused was a passenger, were inadmissible as the fruit of an illegal search and seizure, on the ground of the insufficiency of the warrant on its face. "In
Dutton v. State,
3. Enumeration of error 2 contends that the defendant was denied due process of law when the state, upon cross examination of the defendant, elicited from him admissions of his prior convictions of other offenses, without showing that the defendant either had had or had waived counsel in such prior convictions. The state contends that the evidence was admissible to impeach the defendant’s statement on direct examination, "I always believed in the law and always lived by the law,” which allegedly put his character in evidence.
"In Loper v. Beto,
In Turner v. Hopper, supra, p. 673, the court held that "A fair interpretation of the language in the appellant’s statement, considered in the context of the whole statement, leads inescapably to the conclusion that the appellant was denying only the commission of the robberies with which he was presently charged, and his prior conviction was not admissible to impeach this language.” A similar conclusion might possibly be reached from the statement in the case sub judice; however, rebuttal evidence for even this limited purpose would still be subject to the prohibition of convictions constitutionally invalid.
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Notwithstanding the above, however, the record discloses that counsel for the defendant neither objected to the admission of the evidence during the trial nor complained of it in his amended motion for new trial. "Objections to evidence cannot be raised for the first time either in a motion for new trial or on appeal, and the admission of evidence will not be reviewed by this court where no objection was made below to its admission.”
Edwards v. State,
4. Enumerated error 3 is the trial judge’s considering, during the pre-sentence hearing, evidence of the defendant’s prior convictions, there being no showing by the state that, as to the prior convictions, the appellant had benefit of, or had waived, counsel.
Code Ann. § 27-2503 (a) (Ga. L. 1974, pp. 352, 357) contains the mandatory provision that in pre-sentence hearings "only such evidence in aggravation as the State has made known to the defendant prior to his trial shall be admissible.” However, this provision does not apply where the evidence had been brought out without objection during the trial. (See Division 3, above). Moreover, an examination of the record in this case affirmatively reveals that the defendant’s counsel participated in the exchange of conversation from which the information regarding the defendant’s prior conviction of burglary, while a juvenile, was again discussed. Here again, the defendant’s counsel made no objection. The defendant’s third enumeration of error is without merit.
Judgment affirmed.
