People v. Averett

WOOD (W. J.), J.

A jury found defendant guilty of murder in the first degree and fixed the penalty at life imprisonment. Defendant has appealed from the judgment of conviction and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

In support of his contention that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict defendant argues that there is no evidence of premeditation or malice, but a statement of the more important facts established by the evidence discloses that this contention is without merit.

It is conceded that on January 13, 1942, defendant shot and killed Bennett Shaffer, who had been his son-in-law. Defendant claimed, however, that he shot in self-defense. The daughter of defendant, Teresa Shaffer, died on September 18, 1941, from arsenic poison. The following month defendant appeared at police headquarters in the city of Glendale and stated that Shaffer was a murderer and that he knew his daughter had come to her death through foul play. The police officers informed him that a physician’s examination and the verdict at the coroner’s inquest showed that Teresa Shaffer had come to her death through arsenic poison taken with suicidal intent. About two weeks later defendant again appeared at the police station with a small bottle which had contained Kellogg’s ant paste. He placed the bottle on the desk and said, “Here, if you God dam cops had made an investigation you would have found this.” He stated that he had found the bottle “on top of the garage in back of Mr. Shaffer’s home” and said, “I want a thorough investigation made of that. I think it was foul play.” A police officer told him that the investigation was closed, whereupon defendant stated that he would go to the district attorney’s office to see if he could get action. He was told to go ahead and see if he could get any action, and as he departed he turned and said, “Well, if I can’t get action over there, I am going to

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see to it myself that justice is done.” In the following January defendant walked into the police station and said, “I have just killed my son-in-law. Lock me up.” Officers went to the Shaffer residence and found Shaffer’s body lying partially in the kitchen and partially in the room between the kitchen and the bedroom. One bullet had pierced Shaffer's chest from the front and another bullet had pierced his neck from the rear. The revolver with which the shooting had been done was found on the top of the washing machine in the room between the kitchen and the bedroom.