People v. Condley

JAMES, J.

Defendant was charged with the crime of murder. The jury returned a verdict finding him guilty of manslaughter. He appeals from the judgment of imprisonment and from an order made denying his motion for a new trial.

The information of the district attorney charged that defendant, on or about the sixth day of March, 1921, in the county of Tulare, with malice aforethought, killed Joseph Silva.

A brief summary of the evidence, gathered from the quite voluminous record presented, is all that will be necessary to be made in order to properly present the contentions of appellant. The deceased’s wife was the mother of the wife of appellant. Silva was her second husband, she having been divorced from the father of Mrs. Condley. The Condleys had been married about twelve years and had four children, the eldest of whom was, at the time of the trial, of the age of ten years. Appellant had not lived happily with his wife during the year or so preceding the tragedy, and blamed his mother-in-law, Mrs. Silva, for, as he insisted, having tried to influence his wife against him. The Silvas and appellant lived near the town of Lindsay on ranches located in close proximity to each other. On the fifth day of March, 1921, appellant’s wife took the four children and went with her mother and Silva to the city of Hanford, where there resided Mrs. Jones, who was a sister of Mrs. Condley and daughter of Mrs. Silva. Appellant remonstrated with his wife about going away that day and also, as he testified, expressed his objection to his mother-in-law. Nevertheless, Mrs. Condley refused to remain in appellant’s house and departed with her mother and Silva. On the way to Hanford they stopped at a lawyer’s office, where some consultation was had regarding the marital difficulties of appellant and hip wife. After leaving Mrs. Cond

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ley and the children at the house of Mrs. Jones at Han-ford, the Silvas, in the afternoon of the same day, returned to their home. On the same afternoon appellant drove to Hanford and discovered the whereabouts of his wife and children. He went to the Jones house. Mrs. Jones refused to admit him, telling him he could talk to his wife through the screen door, which he did. Mrs. Jones testified that in the conversation which ensued between appellant and his wife the latter refused to return to her home and announced that she would not live with appellant again, that she was going to get a divorce. Upon the arrival of the husband of Mrs. Jones, appellant was admitted into the house, where he sat and talked for a time. He stated in his testimony that his wife advised him that she was going to stay there with Mrs. Jones for two or three days; that he had told her that he was going to see a police officer and find out whether he could not take the children home, but that he finally left and went to the home of Mrs. Dodds, an aunt of his wife’s who resided near the town of Hanford. Mrs. Dodds was the sister of Mrs. Condley’s father, and her father was at that time living with her at her house. Besides Mrs. Dodds, her husband and brother, there were three young daughters in the Dodds household. Appellant presented to the members of the Dodds family a perturbed appearance and talked a great deal about his domestic difficulties. At least four members of the family testified that he said, referring to Mr. and Mrs. Silva, that if they bothered him he was going to get them both. He was advised, according to the testimony, by Mrs. Dodds’ brother that he shouldn’t feel that way, that it would “only get him in bad,” to which he replied, “I don’t only feel that way but I will do it.” In a further talk with the Dodds family, when he was advised that if he couldn’t get along with his wife he had better stay away from her, appellant asserted that he might go east. Upon leaving the house the following morning he said, in response to an invitation to come back before he went away, that he might come back or he might not come back at all. By his own admission appellant knew that the Silvas had started for their home on the afternoon of the 5th of March; he knew that they were not at the Jones house during the time that he was there, and his wife had declared to him that she intended to stay at the Jones’ for two or three