People v. Russo

KNIGHT, J.

Appellant was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and in accordance with the recommendation of the jury was sentenced to imprisonment for life in the state prison. From the judgment of conviction and the order denying his motion for a new trial he prosecutes this appeal, the main contention made being that the evidence at most establishes only the crime of manslaughter; that the verdict of first degree murder was the product of 'an undue prejudice created against him by certain evidence about which he admits no complaint was made during the trial, but which he now claims was inadmissible, and by the emphasis placed on such evidence by the district attorney in his argument to the jury; and he asks, therefore, that the judgment of conviction be modified by reducing the crime of which he was convicted to manslaughter or that said judgment be reversed and he be granted a new trial. The trial judge, after having given careful consideration to the same contention in hearing the motion for new trial, determined that the verdict of the jury should be allowed to stand, and from our examination of the entire record we find nothing therein to prove that the conclusion reached by the trial judge is not well founded.

The circumstances leading up to and immediately following the homicide were as follows: Russo, the appellant, and Taylor, the man appellant killed, were itinerant laborers working in the fruit industry in the vicinity of Brentwood, Contra Costa County. With several others, named Iesiello, Green, Garland, Haley and Hall, they had been camping for two weeks or more in the railroad stock pens or corrals near the Brentwood station. On Saturday, August 13, 1932, the day preceding the homicide, Russo, Iesiello and Green purchased an old automobile, and the next morning, accompanied by Hall and Haley, started out in the machine intending to drive to a swimming pool. Taylor and Garland remained at the camp. Shortly before noon a man named Coatney called at the camp to see Green, but finding him

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absent stayed and visited Garland. Meanwhile, on the way to the swimming pool, an argument arose between the five men and Haley and Hall quit the party, Haley returning to the camp. Upon entering the stock pen he took a coat belonging either to Eusso or Iesiello from the fence and immediately departed, his whereabouts afterwards being unknown. About an hour later Eusso, Iesiello and Green returned. Coatney, Garland and Taylor were there at the time and Eusso immediately started an altercation with Taylor about the missing coat, Taylor replying in substance that he had about all he could do “to look after his own stuff”. At the same time Taylor took his own coat from the fence and placed it over his arm. Continuing the altercation and advancing toward Taylor in a menacing attitude, Eusso called Taylor the vilest kind of a name, and told him “to get the hell out of the camp”, that if he did not do so he, Eusso, would kick him out. As Eusso continued to advance toward Taylor, the latter threw his coat to one side and Eusso immediately struck him. A fist fight followed and soon after it started Iesiello ran up behind Taylor and struck him on the head with a bucket. Garland then interfered to drive Iesiello away, which started another encounter between the latter two. They fought their way out of the pen, and Iesiello, who was much the younger man, picked up a club and struck Garland with it. Eusso and Taylor, continuing their fight, eventually grappled each other and fell to the ground; and at this juncture Eusso commenced to stab and cut Taylor with a paring knife having a blade some four or more inches long, which, unknown to any of the parties present, Eusso had picked up from the top of a box in the pen just as the fight started or during its progress As soon as Taylor was stabbed he quit fighting, and Eusso jumped up, yelled something in a foreign language to Iesiello, both of whom were Sicilians, and ran toward the automobile, at the same time commanding Green to get in the automobile and bring with him a sack of provisions which was hanging in the pen. Immediately Iesiello stopped fighting with Garland and rushed to the automobile, and Eusso, Iesiello and Green drove away in it. Both Coatney and Garland realized that Taylor had been hurt, but did not know he had been stabbed; and Coatney left at once to summon medical aid. As soon as Coatney had gone Taylor