People v. Page

NOURSE, P. J.

The defendant was convicted of murder in the second degree upon a trial with a jury. He has appealed from the judgment and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

There is no question as to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict. The defendant admitted the killing but claimed that it was accidental. The circumstantial evidence alone was sufficient to support the verdict. The statement of facts following is taken partly from the dying statement of the deceased, who was the sixteen-year-old son of the defendant. The father, son, and grandmother lived in an apartment consisting of a bedroom for each, a kitchen and living room. On Sunday afternoon, the 29th of August, 1937, the defendant went to his room to take a nap but was disturbed by the noise of some boys playing in the neighborhood. He gave one of them a medal which had been the property of his deceased wife, and which she had given to her son. When the latter returned to his home and found what his father had done, an altercation arose during which the father procured a “vigilante” stick with which he threatened his son. The grandmother came from her room and pleaded with the defendant. He then returned to his own bedroom and took a 45 caliber automatic from its holster which hung inside of the door. The grandmother saw this action and pulled the door shut. She called to her grandson to help her, but the boy told her to let his father come out—that he believed that he could calm him down. The defendant came through the door and, holding the gun about six inches from the boy’s body, told him he “would spill his guts all over the floor”. He immediately pulled the trigger, and the discharge of the gun passed through the boy’s abdomen, struck the kitchen floor at a spot about fourteen feet to the rear, and lodged in the easement of the window of the grandmother’s bedroom. The boy walked back to his bedroom and asked his grandmother to call a doctor. The defendant returned to his bedroom and showed no concern about his

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son’s condition. He did not appear until aroused by police officers who had been called by the doctor. The shooting occurred at 5 o’clock P. M. The boy was moved to a hospital about an hour later, where he gave a statement to the police in the presence of the doctor, his grandmother, and several nurses, and while he was being prepared for an operation. At 7 o ’clock he was taken to the operating room and died soon thereafter. Before being removed to the operating room, and within a few minutes after giving his statement to the police, he told the doctor that he did not expect to recover.