People v. Hill

THE COURT.

The Grand Jury of Los Angeles County returned an indictment charging defendant with murder and with nine counts of robbery. Later, the indictment was amended to charge three prior felony convictions. Upon arraignment defendant entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity to each of the several charges. He admitted the prior convictions. Subsequently, defendant withdrew his dual pleas to counts one, two, and ten, and entered pleas of guilty thereto. Evidence was thereupon taken to assist the court in fixing the degree of the crimes charged in those three counts. The murder, perpetrated in the commission of the robbery charged in count two, was found to be

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of the first degree. The robberies charged in counts two and ten, to which defendant also pleaded guilty, were likewise found to be of the first degree. The trial court imposed the death penalty for the homicide and the cause is before us on an automatic appeal.

The evidence adduced upon the arraignment for judgment and sentence unfolds a sordid story reaching back into defendant’s early youth. Defendant testified that his career of crime started when he was ten years of age at which time he was arrested for the theft of a bicycle. Thereafter his infractions of the law were periodic in occurrence and included theft, burglary, robbery, possession of weapons, jail breaking, and, finally, the series of robberies and the murder here charged.

Defendant further testified that early on the morning of July 19, 1942, he entered the lobby of the Garden of Allah Hotel, in Hollywood, with the intention of committing robbery. He approached the desk clerk, Carl Aldinger, and asked for change for a five-dollar bill. As the clerk was counting out the money defendant produced a .32 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver and “demanded that he hand over the cash.” Defendant further testified, “At this time I thought I heard somebody coming through the lobby and also noticed that the desk clerk was looking at me suspiciously. I became frightened and fired four shots at the man, after which I turned and ran from the hotel. . . . All I got from this robbery was the . . . $3.00 which the clerk had counted out. The next morning I read in the newspaper that the man had died instantly. This is the first time I ever fired a shot at any person and I had no intention whatsoever of killing or harming the man. I fired because I believed the man was getting a gun to shoot me.” It is for the murder of Aldinger that defendant has been sentenced to suffer the death penalty.