People v. Jacobs

McCOMB, J.

Prom a judgment of guilty of manslaughter after trial before the court without a jury, defendant appeals.

The case was submitted to the trial court on the transcript

[282]

of the testimony taken at the preliminary hearing which disclosed the following facts:

About 6 p. m. on the night of May 30, 1951, Mr. and Mrs. Loomis Burlingame went to defendant’s home where the Burlingames, defendant and her husband, Henry Jacobs, played cards and drank intoxicating liquor until about 8 :30 p. m. There were no unusual arguments.

The Burlingames then went into the kitchen with defendant to get ready to leave and when they turned around Mr. Jacobs, who had been sitting in an armchair in the living room, was lying on the floor in that room, intoxicated. As the Burlingames left, Mrs. Burlingame walked around Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Burlingame stepped over him saying, “I won’t step on you,” to which Mr. Jacobs made no reply.

Defendant accompanied her guests to their car and after bidding them good night returned and reentered the house. She had been drinking and was under the influence of liquor.

Mr. Oliver, who lived opposite the Jacobs family, arrived home shortly before 8 :30 p. m. the same evening. , He heard loud talking which sounded like an argument among three or four people in the Jacobs’ residence. At approximately 9 p. m. defendant entered Mr. Oliver’s house and said, “I stabbed Henry, come help me.” Mr. Oliver called the police and then went to the Jacobs’ house where he found Mr. Jacobs lying on the floor near the front door. He saw a knife in the room.

Shortly thereafter the police arrived and defendant stated to them she had stabbed her husband but “I didn’t mean it, I didn’t mean it.” A police officer asked her where the knife was and she pointed to a butcher knife with a six-inch blade lying on the arm of a sofa at the east end of the living room. The blade of the knife was contaminated with human blood, fatty tissue and skin. The knife was one she kept in a drawer in the kitchen. Later she told the police officers she had been drinking and did not remember what had happened.

Decedent had a horizontal wound in the back just to the left of the backbone under the left shoulder blade, and the autopsy showed he died as a result of it.