People v. Baskins

WILSON, J.

Defendants were charged under section 653f of the Penal Code with having solicited Henry Davis to commit and join in the commission of the crime of murder of one John R. Baskins. They were tried by a jury and convicted. Each defendant made a motion for a new trial based upon all statutory grounds and said motions were denied.

Defendants’ appeal is upon two grounds: (1) the insufficiency of the evidence; (2) prejudicial error of the court in refusing to give instructions requested by defendants.

1.

Sufficiency of the evidence,

Henry Davis, the person alleged to have been solicited to commit the murder, testified that he rented a room from appellant Mrs. Broussard. Shortly thereafter he was introduced by Mrs. Broussard to her sister, appellant Mrs. Baskins, the latter then being the wife of the person whose murder was sought. He related conversations with both appellants in which they asked him if he would kill Baskins. The witness testified that Mrs. Broussard offered him $600 and showed some bonds as evidence that she was able to pay him. Davis not having been acquainted with Baskins, Mrs. Baskins gave Davis a picture of her husband so that he could be identified. Baskins was killed, but the record does not show who committed the murder.

Another witness who roomed at the Broussard home testified that Mrs. Broussard asked him to kill Baskins and offered him several hundred dollars if he would do so. A third witness, who was also a roomer at Mrs. Broussard’s house, testified that Mrs. Baskins asked him if he would get someone to kill Baskins or do so himself, offering to pay him therefor. Both appellants, testifying in their own behalf, denied that they had ever requested Henry Davis or any other person to kill Baskins,

[731]

Section 653£ of the Penal Code provides that the offense of soliciting another to commit one of the crimes named in. said section “must be proved by the testimony of two witnesses, or of one witness and corroborating circumstances.” Corroborative evidence is additional evidence of a different character, to the same point. (Code Civ. Proe., § 1839.) The testimony of the two witnesses other than Davis was of a different character but to the same point as that of Davis and satisfies the requirement of said section of the Penal Code.