People v. Hall

KNIGHT, J.

The defendant was charged with the murder of one Clyde E. Badgley, and a jury found him guilty of manslaughter. Following the denial of motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment he was sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison; and from the judgment of conviction and the order denying the motion for new trial, he has appealed.

The admitted facts are that appellant shot Badgley with an automatic pistol while they were alone in appellant’s living apartment on Grove Street, in San Francisco, the bullet having entered Badgley’s abdomen and causing death a few days later. At the time of the homicide Badgley was an enlisted soldier, twenty or twenty-one years old. He had been in the service less than seven months. Appellant was forty-eight years old, and for several years had been in the employ of the Market Street railroad. Shortly after the shooting occurred Badgley made a brief oral statement, according to which he was shot intentionally and without provocation. Appellant also made certain statements as to the circumstances attending the shooting, but they were sharply conflicting. He claimed first that it was purely accidental, but afterwards insisted it was done in self-defense during a quarrel. The statements were made by him at the scene of the shooting soon after it happened, following which he was taken to police headquarters where, in the presence of an

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army officer and the inspectors of police, the substance of his final oral statement was reduced to writing and signed by him. Summarized, his final version was that continuously for more than five years immediately preceding the shooting Badgley had been carrying on with him a degenerate relationship for which he had been paying Badgley money; that on the afternoon of the shooting Badgley demanded more money, which he was unwilling or unable to pay; that thereupon a quarrel took place which ended in the fatal shooting. All of the statements so made were received in evidence, and appellant now contends that there was no causal connection between the immoral relationship and the killing, and that therefore the trial court erred in not excluding his declarations relating thereto. There is no merit in the contention.

The record shows that when first questioned by the police appellant made no disclosure whatever of the existence of the immoral relations, nor did he indicate there had been any quarrel. Quite to the contrary he claimed, as stated, that the shooting was purely accidental. His story was that he picked up his pistol to examine it, and that Badgley asked to see it; that he declined to let him have it, saying, “Don’t monkey with that gun”; that nevertheless Badgley grabbed for it and during the scuffle the pistol was accidentally discharged. But when asked by the inspector of police in charge of the case to demonstrate just how the shooting took place, he attempted to do so and failed. The inspector then told him he did not believe the story and in effect accused him of having maintained immoral relations with Badgley; whereupon appellant began to cry and said he would tell “the true story”. He then went on' to tell of the immoral relations that had been carried on between Badgley and himself for the past five years or more, and the payment to Badgley of much money during that period of time; also what he claimed were the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the shooting. In this latter respect he stated that on the day preceding the shooting he drove to Watsonville with Badgley and another soldier named Hutchins, in the latter’s automobile, to visit some friend of Badgley’s, but they were unable to find him, so they stayed there overnight and returned to San Francisco the next day, reaching his apartment about noon, where all three ate lunch; that as soon as they finished eating lunch Badgley began demanding money and he replied