People v. Cobler

HOUSER, J.

From a judgment rendered in pursuance of her conviction of the crime of murder in the first degree,

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with the penalty therefor fixed at life imprisonment in the state prison, as well as from an order by which her motion for a new trial was denied, defendant has appealed to this court.

Briefly, the incriminatory evidence adduced on the trial of the action included a showing that, under the pretense given by defendant to a druggist that she wished to poison some gophers, defendant purchased fifteen grains of strychnine, which was placed in a paper wrapper and labeled “POISON”. She registered with the druggist under an assumed name and a fictitious address. She did not use the strychnine for the asserted purpose for which the strychnine was purchased; but five days after such purchase was made by defendant, in preparing breakfast for her husband, she placed “about one-third” of such strychnine in a glass of milk and gave it to her husband to drink. However, before doing that, in the kitchen sink she burned the paper wrapper that had been the container of the strychnine. She also threw “down the sink” the remaining strychnine that she had not placed in the milk. After the husband had drunk some of the poisoned milk, he complained that he did not “feel good”; and very soon thereafter, in attempting to rise from a “Morris” chair in which he had been sitting, fell to the floor. In such fall his head first struck against a stone in the mantel of a fireplace, and again on an iron “smoking stand” that was practically demolished by reason of such contact. The defendant then called a doctor and other persons to assist in rendering aid to her husband, who died within about thirty-five minutes after drinking the milk that contained the poison. The attending physician testified that on his arrival at the home of defendant and her husband, he found the husband lying on the floor, unconscious, and undergoing convulsive seizures and rhythmic contractions of the heart, lungs, abdomen and facial muscles;—which conditions continued until his death. The doctor further testified that the symptoms of strychnine poisoning were rhythmic convulsions, spasms of the muscular system of the body and spasmodic respiration at rapid rate; all of which were apparent with reference to Mr. Cobler’s condition. Furthermore, that in his opinion, the cause of Mr. Cobler’s death was strychnine poisoning, and that the blows on the head which he had received apparently at the