People v. Sameniego

[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *Page 167 Appellants were convicted of murder of the first degree, with the penalty of life imprisonment, and appeal from the order denying their motion for a new trial and from the judgment.

On October 23, 1928, at about midnight the deceased, Ralph Trump, stopped his automobile across the street from the residence of Miss Marjorie Ullman, who was riding beside him in the front seat of the vehicle. They had conversed for a few minutes when two young men approached on foot from the direction in which the car was faced. One of these men ran to the right front fender and stood there. The other paused a moment in front of the automobile with a pistol in his hand and then ran around to the driver's seat and, without a word being spoken and without any motion on the part of the occupants of the car, shot the deceased through the heart, causing almost immediate death. The defendants were arrested August 2, 1930, in connection with the investigation of a series of robberies and, in the course of the questioning, appellant Sameniego stated that Mossberg had killed a man two years prior. This led the officers to a further inquiry, which disclosed that the killing was the one upon which this prosecution is based. Sameniego then went to the scene of the murder with the officers and there gave a more detailed statement and explanation of the circumstances. In his confessions Sameniego stated in substance that he and Mossberg had agreed to "hold up" a "petting party", that they drove past the automobile occupied by the deceased and his companion, parked the car in which they were riding, and walked back to rob the occupants of the vehicle they had just passed; that he, Sameniego, went to the right side of the automobile and Mossberg went to the driver's side, armed with a pistol and, without a word being spoken, and without any action on the part of the occupants of the automobile, Mossberg shot the deceased and that appellants then ran away. Mossberg in his first confession told a similar story, but stated that Sameniego fired the shot. The next day both defendants made statements which were taken down in shorthand, going into detail, but substantially the same as the original statement of Sameniego, Mossberg admitting that he fired the fatal shot. *Page 169

Appellant Sameniego contends that the court erred in the admission of his confession in evidence.

[1] (1) The contention that the existence of a preconceived plan or conspiracy on the part of defendants to commit a robbery must be proved as a part of the corpus delicti is without merit. The corpus delicti of a felonious homicide consists of the death of a human being and a criminal agency. Nowhere will there be found in our law the additional element contended for by appellant. [2] Neither is the identity of the perpetrator of a crime an element of the corpus delicti. (People v. Flores,34 Cal.App. 393 [167 P. 413]; People v. Vertrees, 169 Cal. 404 [146 P. 890]; People v. Rodway, 77 Cal.App. 738, 783 [247 P. 532]; People v. Moe, 116 Cal.App. 740 [3 P.2d 354].)