People v. Crozier

NOURSE, P. J.

The defendant-appellant was tried to a jury on an information charging first degree murder. He answered and pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. The jury found him guilty as charged, with a recommendation for clemency.

Without a demand on his part, but on suggestion of the trial court, defendant was first tried on the issue of his sanity at the time set for trial. He was duly found insane and was committed to a state hospital where he was held until his return for trial on a certification of recovery. He then withdrew his plea of insanity and stood trial to the jury on the information charging murder. From the ensuing judgment on the verdict, with a recommendation of life imprison

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ment, and from the order denying his motion for a new trial this appeal was taken. Counsel now appearing for appellant did not participate in the trial. He was assigned by this court to prosecute the appeal and we appreciate his able presentation of the points involved.

The story begins with the night of January 13, 1922, when a San Francisco police officer found the dead body of a woman lying on her bed with a gag in her mouth, a cloth around her neck, bound hand and foot, and with numerous contusions on her throat. The rooms in her apartment had been ransacked giving all the indications of a burglary.

Twenty-eight years later the defendant was arrested in the town of Darien, Connecticut, on a charge of drunkenness and larceny. He gave the lieutenant of police a written confession of the murder in San Francisco on January 13, 1922. This confession was shown to him on the following morning and he stated that it was true. Later in the same day he gave the Darien police another written statement confessing to the same crime. No promises or threats were made. He was advised that he was entitled to counsel but he rejected the offer. Both confessions were admitted in evidence at the trial as well as the oral confession made to the San Francisco police officer at the time of the arrest, and they constitute appellant’s main attack on the judgment.

At this point it is proper to quote at length from the first confession as it unmistakably discloses that defendant was u then clear of mind, and also because it discloses many facts relative to the murder which were then unknown to all the arresting officers. We quote: “I have been arrested for intoxication and larceny, burglary, etc. most all my life. I wish at this time to clear my conscious [sic] in regards to the murder that I committed in San Francisco, California on January 13, 1922, which was on a Friday. I was boarding at the rooming house conducted by Mrs. Elizabeth Platt at 1550 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco, California and on the above date, January 13, 1922, while she was showing one Raymond Burleigh, alias Raymond Conklin and Andy Schrick both from Chicago, Illinois, graduates of Joliet Prison. While she was showing the room I threw my arms about her neck and she started to scream and Burleigh or Conklin put a rag into her mouth to stop her noise. She went limp and we put her on the bed and then searched the house for money and I don’t remember finding any money but we did take two suits of mens clothes which were large size, about a 44 and one