People v. Dyer

EDMONDS, J.

The defendant who was convicted by a jury upon three separate charges of murder in the first degree, has appealed from the judgments subsequently rendered imposing the death penalty upon him.

By an indictment he was charged with the murder of three children between six and ten years of age. On the morning of June 26, 1937, the children went to a park together for play. They were seen there by various persons during the morning and until about noon. When they failed to return to their homes a search was instituted for them, which continued for two days. Their bodies were then discovered in a ravine about four miles from the park.

Practically all of the evidence connecting the defendant with the crime consists of confessions made by him. The first point relied upon for a reversal of the judgments concerns the cross-examination of a witness who testified to these confessions. Other contentions are that the trial judge erred in admitting certain testimony and in limiting the examination of witnesses.

The record shows that the defendant was arrested on July 4th and that he was questioned in the office of the district attorney that 'evening. On the following morning the district attorney and the sheriff talked with him. On the next day he was taken before the grand jury and examined by the district attorney. At this time, as on the two previous occasions, the defendant confessed that he had committed the crimes with which he was charged.

[319]

A transcript of the proceeding before the grand jury was read in evidence at the trial. It shows that in answer to questions then asked of him by District Attorney Fitts the defendant stated in minute detail not only that he had planned some days in advance to murder and ravish the children, but also how he accomplished his purposes. His story is that of a degenerate fiend. After getting the little girls to leave the park where they were playing on the pretext that he would take them rabbit hunting, he led them to the lonely place in the hills where he carried out his diabolical designs.

Appellant urges that the evidence of his alleged confessions was not admissible, because it was shown that he had been in custody and had been interrogated for a period of ten hours before he made any statements implicating himself in the crime. He did not testify upon the trial and the confessions he made stand uncontradicted. But he claims that he was not allowed to show by cross-examination the circumstances under which he confessed on the night of July 4th.