People v. DeVaughn

NOURSE, P. J.

The defendant was convicted upon an indictment charging the offense of subornation of perjury. He has appealed from the judgment and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

In the course of a previous trial of this defendant on a charge of murder occurring during the performance of an abortion, this defendant produced as a witness Mrs. May Perati, who testified that a short time before her death the deceased had appeared at her home and, in her presence, had attempted to produce an abortion upon herself with the use of a stick of slippery elm. The materiality of this testimony is not questioned and its falsity is not denied. In the present trial the witness Perati testified that this testimony was false and that it had been given at the request and upon the advice and suggestion of the defendant. She testified further that, for several years prior to the trial, she and her husband had been obtaining narcotic prescriptions from the defendant, a practicing physician, and that he had promised her, in return for her false testimony, that he would procure for her and for her husband a permanent narcotic order. In the murder trial the defendant was convicted. The witness Perati has pleaded guilty to an indictment charging her with perjury.

The first point raised is that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict. The foregoing statement should be sufficient answer; but to this it may be added that the witness Perati also testified in this trial that she had not known the deceased; that the deceased had not been to her home at any time; that her testimony in the murder trial that she had not known the defendant, had never been in his office, and had never been treated by him was false and was directed by the defendant; that all the testimony which she gave in the murder trial was prepared and suggested by the defendant; and that he had also directed her to attend the preliminary examination to learn what she could about the appearance and habits of the deceased.

[574]

The defendant did not take the stand and offered no evidence contradicting the story of this witness.

The appellant then argues that the verdict must be set aside because the evidence of Mrs. Perati was not corroborated. The same question was raised in