People v. Zari

WASTE, P. J.

The appellant was convicted of the crime of murder in the first degree and sentenced to a term of life imprisonment. He appeals from the order denying his motion for a new trial and from the judgment.

The facts are few and" simple. On May 17, 1920, in a dispute over the possession of certain bank-books, the defendant cut his wife’s throat with a pocket-knife, inflicting injuries from which she died instantly. There were no eye-witnesses to the homicide. Neighbors who heard sounds of the disturbance in the Zari home summoned the police officers. When they arrived the wife lay dead upon the floor, and the defendant was lying near, face downward, with a long cut, described by the surgeons as “more of a superficial wound,” across his neck. He had the knife in his hand. When removed to the emergency hospital for treatment the defendant told a representative of the district attorney’s office that he “had some trouble with her [his wife] and he killed her with a knife.” Later, on the same day, a police officer asked him, “Why did you kill your wife?” and he replied, “I killed her because she had the bank-books and wouldn’t give them back to me.”

[1]

The defendant interposed and sought to sustain the defense of insanity. It was incumbent upon him to establish such insanity by a preponderance of the evidence. In the estimation of the jury he did not do so, and it therefore properly disregarded the plea.

(People

v.

Willard,

150 Cal. 543, 552, [89 Pac. 124].)

[2]

He now contends that he was improperly convicted of murder, upon facts which show nothing more than manslaughter. We have carefully scrutinized the record and are fully satisfied that this contention cannot be upheld. It is very evident that the jury was not impressed with the story told by the defendant in the light of other compelling features of the ease. The circumstances surrounding the brutal killing of the defendant’s wife, and the events leading up to it, confirm his own admissions made immediately following the

[135]