People v. Lami

WASTE, C. J.

Appellant appeals from a judgment sentencing him to suffer the extreme penalty. The judgment is based upon the verdict of a jury finding him guilty of murder in the first degree without recommendation.

In an information filed by the district attorney of Sacramento County, appellant was charged with having murdered his estranged wife. Upon his arraignment he offered to plead guilty to a charge of manslaughter. To this the district attorney objected, whereupon appellant entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. Subsequently and before proceeding to trial appellant expressed

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a willingness to plead guilty to a charge of second degree murder. This offer was likewise rejected. Upon the impanelment of the jury and before trial, appellant withdrew his insanity plea. When the evidence was in and it had been fully instructed on the law the jury retired to deliberate upon its verdict. It returned to the courtroom in fifty-five minutes with a verdict finding appellant guilty as charged.

The evidence, which we shall briefly narrate, left no alternative for the jury but to find appellant guilty of murder in the first degree. The autopsy surgeon testified that the body of the deceased bore five lacerations or stab wounds and that she died as the result of hemorrhages from the heart and liver caused by one of these stab wounds.

The nine year old daughter of the deceased and appellant testified that on the day of the homicide she lived with her mother and brother; that at about 6:30 on the morning of April 3, 1933, she was awakened by her mother’s screams emanating from the bathroom; that she went to her and found her in the bathtub; that she saw her father in the act of picking something up; that the father immediately left without saying anything, and that she called her brother, who had been sleeping elsewhere in the house.

The deceased’s son, and stepson of the appellant, testified that during the month of April, 1933, and for approximately one year prior thereto, his mother and appellant had been separated; that during this period he (the witness) had been living with his mother and sister; that on the evening preceding the homicide he returned from work at about 12:30 o’clock; that his mother prepared food for him; that they retired shortly thereafter; that at that time there was no one in the house but the deceased, his sister and himself; that when summoned to the bathroom by his sister he found his mother there bleeding; that he did not see appellant at that time; and that the police were summoned and upon investigation found a knife under the bathtub. On cross-examination the witness testified that a week or two prior to the homicide the deceased and appellant had quarreled over the former “going with some other man”.