People v. Lacang

PRESTON, J.

In this cause defendant, charged by information with the crime of murder, plead not guilty, and also not guilty by reason of insanity. Trial was had upon the question of his guilt and the jury returned a verdict of

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guilty without' recommendation. His plea of not guilty by reason of insanity was thereupon withdrawn. Judgment of conviction imposing the death penalty followed, and from said judgment and the order denying his motion for new trial defendant now appeals upon the ground that the court erred in permitting the admission of certain evidence, in allowing an interpreter for witness Emoto and in refusing to give to the jury certain requested instructions.

We find the record to be free from prejudicial error; hence but a brief statement is necessary. There is no question of the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict and judgment. In July, 1929, appellant, a twentyfour year old Filipino, and the deceased, an eighteen year old American girl, ran away and were married without the ‘consent of the girl’s parents. Appellant secured employment on a ranch in Fresno County, picking grapes and doing other labor, superintended by Roy Emoto. His wife, after returning to her parents for some six months, rejoined appellant in the spring of 1930 and thereafter, early in June, gave birth to a child. After her confinement in the hospital she convalesced about six days at the home of said Emoto under the care of his wife. She then returned with her baby to appellant’s house.

On the evening of July 2, 1930, after a quarrel, appellant took a butcher knife, stabbed her with it as she lay in bed, and killed her, also cutting his own body in several places in an alleged effort to destroy himself. The motive actuating the crime is shown by conflicting evidence. Some witnesses testified that appellant said he killed his wife because she was about to leave him and because of dissension between them, and a letter was admitted in evidence, written by'the deceased on the day in question to her mother, stating that she was nervous and torn up, and asking her mother to send her money for her fare home. There was also testimony that the deceased had tried to get away but that appellant had found her each time and induced her to stay with him. Appellant’s final explanation, however, was that he caught said Emoto and his wife in the act of having illicit relations on the evening in question and that while still emotionally aroused over the situation and his suspicions of past indiscretions on the part of his wife with other Filipinos, he killed her. Witness Emoto denied intimacy or improper