People v. Sanford

CARTER, J.

This is an automatic appeal from a judgment imposing the death penalty for murder in the first degree, and from an order denying defendant’s motion for a new trial.

The defendant, William Sanford, came to San Francisco from Ben Lomond about the 14th of June, 1948. He lived in various cheap hotels in the Mission District for a period of about a week, but then decided he would rather live in a private home. He walked about the district until he saw a sign advertising rooms for rent in a flat at 719 Capp Street. On either June 18th or 19th, 1948, he rented a room in the flat from Mrs. Felippa Griffiths, the victim. The rent receipt for $5.00 for the first week, which he paid in advance, was made out by one of the other roomers, a Mr. Cohn, at the request of Mrs. Griffiths. During the period of time that he resided in the flat he was not working and spent most of his time in his room. In order to explain this, he informed Mrs. Griffiths that he had been in the service, that he had a bad heart and that he was under medical treatment at Oak Knoll Hospital in Oakland. With the exception of some service in the Coast Guard, the other statements were untrue.

The defendant, a man about 20 years of age, gained the confidence of Mrs. Griffiths (a woman about 55 years of age) by telling her of his war service. Mrs. Griffiths’ son had been killed while serving in the armed forces overseas, and his body was being sent back to San Francisco for burial. It appears that the defendant endeared himself to her by telling her that he had been present and knew that the boys who had been killed while in the service had been given proper burials and that a priest had been in attendance. Mrs. Griffiths, by the defendant’s own admission, treated him like a son.

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The defendant did not testify in his own behalf, and the evidence adduced at the trial was given by others, including police officers who were called to the scene of the crime, and who testified to the facts as related to them by the defendant after his arrest, and to the events which took place while the defendant was in their custody. It appears that he talked freely and voluntarily, offering information as to his past, his reason for coming to San Francisco, admitted committing the crime, and his reasons for killing Mrs. Griffiths. He told the officers that he had come to San Francisco to kill a girl, one Rita Gerstman, to whom he had once been engaged but who had broken their engagement when he started getting in trouble. When he arrived, he had no gun and no money with which to buy one, After seeing the girl again, he decided not to kill her, but to embark on a series of robberies and holdups as a way to make his living. However, he had no gun and it was necessary for him to obtain one. He then formulated the plan of robbing Mrs. Griffiths and the other occupants of the flat so that he could get money with which to buy the gun so that he could carry out his purpose. He made his plans for Monday, June 28, 1948, knowing that the other roomers would be away at work. He first thought, so he told the officers, of using a heavy vase which was in the hall but felt that her suspicions would be aroused if he appeared at the door of her room with it in his hand and so abandoned that plan. During the time he had lived in the flat he had done some odd jobs around the house and knew that she kept a tool chest in a closet off the back porch. He knocked at the door of Mrs. Griffiths’ room, and told her that the hasp or catch on his suitcase was broken and that he needed a wrench with which to repair it, intending to use the wrench as a weapon with which to kill her and thus obtain any money she had, and the keys to the other rooms. She went out on the back porch with him, and opened the tool chest in the closet. She, while in a kneeling position, handed him a monkey wrench and he told her it was too large and not what he wanted; she next handed him a 14-inch Stillson wrench which he also told her was too large, but this wrench he kept in his hand. While she was still going through the chest he raised the Stillson wrench and struck her on the back of the head. She slumped forward and he said that he struck her again when she gave a little scream. At this blow, the blood started to spurt from the wound and so he took some loose clothing which was in the closet and put it over her head