People v. Hoover

THOMPSON (R. L.), J.

The defendant was convicted of murder of the second degree. He was a professional pugilist. He pleaded guilty to a charge of former conviction of burglary. About noon on the thirty-first day of January, 1930, in company with his brother Lester, he entered the office of Erickson, who was a dealer in used automobiles. This office was a small wooden shack situated in the yard at Broderick, where the automobile business was conducted. The Hoover brothers attempted to negotiate an exchange of their machine, which they had previously wrecked by colliding with a telephone pole, for a Dodge car. Erickson, Roy, the deceased, and his brother Henry Smith, Ray Eustes, Portlocb and Corey, together with the Hoover brothers were about the office most of the afternoon. They were all drinking wine from a jug. No one was noticeably intoxicated, however,- except Corey, who was employed by Erickson to paint old machines. A dispute arose between the defendant or his brother and Corey over the proposed exchange of machines. The defendant then sat in the office on a stool hacking at the floor with a hand-axe. Erickson was temporarily absent. Corey, who was assuming to act for the owner of the business, offered to trade a certain Dodge car for the defendant’s machine for $75 in addition. The defendant sneered at Corey and said he was not much of a dealer, adding, “I could have traded with Bud (Erickson) for $50. . . . You better go out and wipe the grease off of the cars, where you belong.” Corey retorted that he did not have to wipe off grease, that he could make more money in two hours after dark than the defendant could make in a week. In anger the defendant sprang from the stool and, rushing over to Corey, threatened him with the axe. The bystanders told him to throw down the axe, which he did. The defendant then struck Corey and knocked him down. The deceased, who was sitting upon a divan, then said: “There is no call for anything like that; that is no way to treat that man, the condition he is in,” or “That isn’t any way to treat an old man.” The defendant then again picked up

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the axe and started for the deceased, saying: “You want some of it too.” The deceased then said: “Drop that axe and I will go with you.” Thereupon the defendant threw the axe down and before the deceased arose from the divan struck him several times. The deceased then jumped up and a fierce fistic battle ensued. The stove was overturned. The furniture was upset or wrecked. The glass in the window and door was broken. The little shack fairly rocked with the violence of the affray. In spite of the superior size and weight of the deceased, the defendant appeared to have the advantage. He was landing three or four times as many blows as the deceased. Henry, the brother of the deceased, objected to what he termed unfair fighting on the part of the defendant. Lester Hoover, the brother of the defendant, then assaulted Henry. The fight became general. Both Corey and Portlock had gone outside. Suddenly the defendant, who had been knocked over against the wall, pulled a knife from his pocket and, opening it, stabbed the deceased repeatedly. Henry Smith saw the stabbing and attempted to aid his brother, but was prevented from doing so by the interference of Lester Hoover. Portlock, looking in through the window, saw the defendant draw his knife and shouted: “Not a knife, Hoover; you are whipping him, anyhow.” After having been stabbed several times the deceased fell wounded and bleeding to the floor. He never again arose. The fatal thrust of the knife penetrated his lung. He died from this knife wound soon afterward. There is evidence that after the deceased had fallen to the floor fatally wounded, and lay there helpless, that the defendant viciously kicked him in the face several times. The absence of severe contusions on the face of the deceased, disclosed by the post-mortem examination, may discredit the claim that he was kicked in the face. The' defendant then fiercely drove the other occupants of the room out of the office by threatening them with the knife. He slammed the door and kept them out until an officer arrived within a few moments thereafter. The Hoover brothers were then placed under arrest. The defendant denied that he had done any cutting with a knife, but later asserted that the deceased first drew this knife and attempted to use it on the defendant and that he knocked the deceased down, secured the knife and used it only in