People v. Warr

JAMES, J.

Appellant was convicted upon an information charging that he did. “willfully, unlawfully, feloniously and maliciously place, deposit and attempt to explode at, in and near a certain building, to wit: the Central Police station in the city of Los Angeles, a certain nitroglycerine explosive, commonly known as giant-gelatine or dynamite, with intent then and there to injure, intimidate and terrify Richard H. Hilf and other human beings.” He appeals from the judgment by which he was sentenced to serve twenty years in the state prison, and” from an order denying a motion made on his behalf for a new trial.

On the morning of November 19, 1912, defendant, who was disguised by wearing a yellow mask over his face, and green goggles, entered the outer offices of the chief of police of Los Angeles, bearing a large parcel or box. He approached an officer and demanded to see the chief of police. Upon being told that he must state his business before he could be permitted to see that official, he said that he had enough dynamite in the package which he carried to blow up the police station and ordered the officer to produce before him immediately the highest official of a railroad company, whom he could find in the city of Los Angeles. He insisted upon his demand being complied with and showed to the officers, others having gathered in the mean time, that he had his box of dynamite all arranged ready to explode. A glass panel had been placed in the top of the box and a musket hammer could be seen through it, the hammer being held back in a position to be .dropped, with caps and fuses attached. It was at first thought that the claim that there was dynamite in the box was false, and that defendant was perpetrating some sort of a hoax. However, two men familiar with dynamite were, permitted by defendant to examine some of the sticks, of which the box contained about sixty, and they found that it really was dynamite and of very high explosive quality. Defendant all of this while held one hand inside the box, and told

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the onlookers that the moment he withdrew it the hammer would descend and set off the cap which in turn would fire the fuses and dynamite. The problem as to what was to be done with the visitor had become a serious one. The prisoners in the jail and the occupants of rooms upstairs were ordered out of the building. A pretense had been made to telephone to the railroad official whose presence the defendant demanded, and defendant was told that the man would come in twenty minutes. He stated that they must produce the highest official who happened to be in the city; that “they must go down the line” until they found one. A member of the city detective force and an officer attached to the district attorney’s office, decided to put an end to the suspense. One approached defendant as he sat in a chair and struck him on the head with a policeman’s billy, knocking him to the floor where he lay unconscious. The other watched the box. As defendant fell, the hammer of the infernal machine descended and lighted the fuse. Grabbing up the sputtering box the officer ran with it to the street where he tore it into pieces and disconnected the fuses. No explosion occurred. Defendant upon recovering consciousness expressed surprise that the dynamite had not exploded—also regret. He said that he had intended to scare the police officers and “scare them good and plenty.” He told how he had obtained the dynamite in San Bernardino County by substituting a lock of his own for one just like it which he found on the magazine door of a rock quarrying company, and taking the dynamite out at pleasure. He talked freely and voluntarily about the whole episode, both before and at the preliminary examination, and at the trial no facts were left in dispute at all. This latter condition of the evidence is referred to hereinafter in connection with a consideration of the points contended for as grounds entitling defendant to another trial.