People v. Mahatch

LORIGAN, J.

Defendant was tried and convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to be hanged. He appeals from the judgment and order denying his motion for a new trial.

Defendant and deceased, F. Confaglia, on the morning of Sunday, May 15, 1904, went in a rowboat down the Klamath Biver in Del Norte County, to a town called Bequa, some four miles from their place of residence. Confaglia purchased a sack of flour and some other articles, including a bottle and a flask of whisky, and about four o’clock in the after

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noon they started in their boat to return home, the defendant rowing. Between them they drank the whisky on their way up the river, save a parting drink which defendant claims they took after reaching their point of debarkation,—Isle’s Landing,—an isolated spot on Began Creek, a tributary of the Klamath Biver. As near as can be ascertained from the evidence, they reached this point about seven o’clock in the evening. Prom the time they left Bequa the parties were not seen by any one (except by a boatman they met on the Klamath before they pulled into Began Creek, to whom they gave a drink, and who testified that both were in his judgment intoxicated) until the defendant appeared later in the evening near the residence of Martha Isle, about a half-mile from the boat landing. Mrs. Isle was standing outside her barn, and as to what took place testified: “Johnnie Mahatch came up and looked scared, and told me he had a row with Mr. Confaglia, and I asked if Mr. Confaglia had gone on home. He said: ‘No, he is asleep down there some place.’ He had a mark on his face, and I asked him if he scratched his face. He said: ‘No,’ Confaglia hit him. He had no coat or hat on.” Defendant left immediately after this conversation, and Mrs. Isle and others whom she had called repaired to the landing, where they found the dead body of Confaglia. The evidence showed that his body was found lying above the bank of Began Creek, some distance from the landing; that his death- was occasioned by a stab wound in the heart, and must have been instantaneous. Some distance from the body was found a large knife, identified by witnesses as belonging to defendant, and in his possession as late as two weeks before the homicide. The hat and coat of defendant were also found at different points in the vicinity of the body. The contents of the boat—the flour, other articles, and the boat’s sail—had been taken out and deposited on the bank.