People v. Pope

BARNARD, P. J.

The defendant was charged with murder in that on January 24, 1954, he wilfully, unlawfully, feloniously and with malice aforethought, killed and murdered Helen Pixley Pope. A jury found him guilty of murder in the first degree, fixing his punishment at life imprisonment. He has appealed from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

It is first contended that the evidence was insufficient to support a verdict of murder of the first degree, or of any unlawful homicide other than manslaughter.

The defendant married Helen Pixley in Tijuana, Mexico, on July 27, 1953. Shortly after the marriage he claims to have discovered that she did not have a final decree of divorce from her former husband, Pixley, and that she had lived for some months with a sailor named Zobel. She corresponded regularly with Zobel, who was at sea, and refused the defendant’s request to advise Zobel that she was married. He testified that he left her twice during the marriage because of her conduct with other men, and that they then made up and he went back with her. The second of these occasions was on September 23, 1953, when she had gone out with a man named “Bob” and returned about 3 a. m. She told him that it was none of his business where she had been, and he beat her severely. Two nights later she went to where he was staying to take him some of his clothes. At that time, in the presence of a witness, he struck her and told her he was going to kill her one of these days if he had to go to

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the gas chamber for it. Sometime in October he said to another witness, “Don’t you think I did a good job beating the ‘old lady’ up?” The witness replied in effect, “You knew what she was” and the defendant responded that what she did before was her own business, and that if she did it again he was going to kill her and then kill himself. During December, he told another witness on several occasions that he was going to “beat the hell out of her.” On January 12, he told a witness that it looked like things were going to be in a mess as Pixley and Zobel were coming back and that “If she gets out of line I’ll kill her and kill myself.”

On January 24,1954, the boat on which Zobel was stationed returned to San Diego, and Zobel and his friend Sehimming went ashore together about 11:15 a. m. Zobel immediately called Mrs. Pope and then met her at a “cafe.” They then went to another “cafe” where Helen went inside. She came out with the defendant and they both got in the car. The defendant then asked Helen, “What is the score, what are we going to do?” She replied: “I can’t take any more, I’m through.” The defendant then got out of the car and Helen and the two sailors drove off. They proceeded to her home, arriving there about 2 ¡30 or 3 p. m.