People v. Gordon

CRAIG, J.

The appellant was charged by information filed by the district attorney of Los Angeles County with the

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crime of murder, in that he did wilfully, unlawfully, and feloniously, and with malice aforethought, Mil one Joseph E. DeHart, on or about the seventh day of June, 1925. The jury returned a verdict of murder in the second degree. A motion for new trial was presented, which was denied, and this is an appeal from the ruling last mentioned and from the judgment.

It appears that on the night of the occurrence in controversy Gordon, with his wife and child, drove to the Dehart residence on Adams Street, in the city of Los Angeles, for the purpose of attempting to collect the value of a window which the defendant claimed to haAn been broken in his store by the young son of Mrs. DeHart. Gordon went to the house and knocked, a man appeared at the door, Gordon stated his business, and Mrs. DeHart then appeared. The evidence is squarely contradictory as to the cause and manner of the ensuing tragedy. Evidence offered by the People tended to show that Gordon shot DeHart and killed him inside the house, as a result of an argument, but without provocation, and that DeHart was not armed. The defense was .that DeHart was shot by Gordon in self-defense. The latter testified that while talking with Mrs. DeHart concerning his mission a man stepped near the door, but remained back of Mrs. DeHart; that the man began to curse him, and finally drove him from the house; that as the defendant left he saw the man had a revolver; that Mrs. DeHart threw up her arm as though to take hold of the man with her, and said, “Oh, my God! Don’t kill this man! Don’t shoot this man!” and told him that Gordon was all right; that the man came outside, and the defendant, seeing his own life, as he believed, in danger, procured a revolver which he carried for self-protection because he had considerable money on his person, and fired, intending to shoot the man in the shoulder; that Mrs. DeHart then cried, “You shot my husband; you Mlled my husband!” whereupon, after some excited controversy and confusion, the evidence of which is not material to the questions here presented, Gordon returned home, where he left his weapon and later surrendered at the police station.

The prosecution contended that the defendant was inside the house at the time of the shooting and that it was he