People v. Shannon

WASTE, C. J.

The defendant was convicted of the crime of murder in the first degree and the death penalty was imposed upon him. He has appealed from the judgment and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

The evidence amply supports the judgment of conviction. The defendant Shannon, who had already served two terms in the state prisons for forgery and for passing a fictitious check, assumed the name Walter C. Leslye and, claiming to be the manager of a mine in Alpine County, pretended to be desirous of purchasing an automobile for the purpose of carrying the mine pay-roll from the bank, and to use generally. By means of these and other false pretenses he induced Harold W. Lage, an automobile salesman connected with a Stockton house, to accompany him in a Lincoln automobile to the location of the supposed mine. On that trip, on December 31, 1926, the defendant shot and killed Lage. Assuming the name of the dead man, he registered at the hotel, used Lage’s business cards and personal effects, and wrote and passed a number of checks under the name of Lage. He then traveled various roads up and down the state of California, seeking to avoid arrest, during which journey he sent telegrams, using

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Lage’s name, to the latter’s wife and to his employer. He was finally apprehended in Salt Lake City about a month after the murder.

It is the contention of the appellant that the prosecution introduced no evidence to show that he was present at the time of the killing of Lage. He has not correctly stated the record. After the defendant’s arrest and before trial, and again when on the stand as a witness in his own behalf, the defendant admitted being at the place where Lage was killed. He attempted in each instance to place the actual killing of the salesman on two “pals,” whose names he refused to divulge, and who he claimed were planning with him to rob the Bank of Amador. In another statement, made to the sheriff and district attorney of the county, the defendant claimed that Lage denounced him and his friends as “a bunch of crooks,” and, drawing a pistol, threatened them with arrest; that, in the struggle between Lage and himself for the possession of the pistol, it was discharged twice, shooting Lage through the head and through the neck, whereupon he and his “pals” hid the dead body. They then “beat it.” He repudiated this story later when on the witness-stand, with the exclamation that he lied when making the statement and did not expect anyone to believe it. The jury rejected defendant’s version of the killing, and accepted the evidence supporting the prosecution’s theory of the crime. Its estimate of the evidence was approved by the trial court when it denied- the motion for a new trial. There being ample evidence to support it, we cannot disturb the finding of court and jury.