People v. Sotelo

TYLER, P. J.

Appellant was charged in an information filed by the district attorney of Monterey County with the crime of murder, for the killing of one Bartoleme Cabaltera. A verdict of murder in the second degree was returned by the jury. Motion for a new trial was made and denied. From the judgment entered upon the verdict and from the order denying a new trial appellant prosecutes this appeal.

The main point relied upon for a reversal is that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict. Defendant and the deceased, Filipinos, were employed in a camp in the vicinity of the town of Spreckels, Monterey County, California. Deceased was the cook at the camp and defendant, so he testified, visited him for the purpose of collecting a certain sum of money which he claimed the deceased owed him. What transpired between them was testified to by defendant, who took the stand in his own behalf. In substance he claimed that upon demanding payment of the sum due him deceased became angry, denied the indebtedness, and commenced throwing stove-wood at him, which struck him on certain parts of his head and body. After throwing the wood, deceased attempted to obtain possession of an iron poker with which to strike defendant, whereupon defendant, in order to protect himself, stepped toward the deceased and threw a knife at him which penetrated his back, producing a wound which shortly thereafter caused death. There were no eye-witnesses to the killing and defendant claims that as his testimony was not directly contradicted the jury was bound to accept it and should have acquitted him. There were other circumstances, however, from which the jury was fully justified in rendering the verdict which it did. It appeared in evidence that deceased ran from the kitchen with the knife in his back, calling for help, and that he was closely followed by the defendant. Defendant ran away from the scene of the killing, and, in the course of his flight, threw away a loaded revolver. He afterward concealed himself, but was subsequently arrested in an adjacent town.

[690]

The knife with which the killing was done entered the back of the deceased between the third and fourth ribs for a depth of about six inches. It was the claim of the prosecution that it would have been impossible for the knife to have produced this character of a wound under the circumstances described by defendant, or that it could have penetrated the body of the deceased to the depth that it did. It was the theory of the prosecution that defendant had approached the deceased while he was bending over his stove and deliberately stabbed him. Defendant admitted that at the time the wound was inflicted the deceased had his back turned toward him. The nature and character of the wound and the fact that the knife remained embedded in the back of the deceased, together with the other circumstances above related, were legitimate matters to be considered by the jury in reaching its conclusion. The mere fact that defendant’s testimony was not improbable and was uncontradicted by direct testimony, did not compel the jury to believe it, where the circumstances were such as to reasonably justify an inference of guilt.