People v. Wright

GIBSON, C. J. — Defendant was charged with violating section 4500 'of the Penal Code in that, while undergoing a life sentence in a state prison, he assaulted with malice aforethought Robert Grayson, a fellow prisoner, by means of force likely to produce great bodily harm and that Grayson died as a result of the assault.1 A jury found that defendant was guilty as charged and that he was sane at the time of the commission of the offense. His motion for new trial was denied, the punishment was fixed at death, and the appeal comes to us automatically under subdivision (b) of section 1239 of the Penal Code.

On the morning of November 20, 1959, defendant and another prisoner, Howard Regan, approached Grayson in an exercise area adjacent to their cells and talked to him about some cigars he assertedly had taken from Regan. Defendant and Grayson took about ten steps toward the rear of the exercise area, and then defendant grabbed him by the collar and, while holding him, struck him several times with a knife. A guard called to defendant to stop, and defendant released Grayson, who fell to the floor with knife wounds in his chest, stomach and arm. After the assault defendant threw the knife out of a window and returned to his cell where he tore his [562]blood-stained trousers into small pieces and flushed them down the toilet. The wound in Grayson’s chest extended into his heart, and he died within a few minutes after the attack as a result of the wound.

Defendant testified that after the discussion about the cigars he turned to walk away, that Grayson drew a knife, that he lunged at Grayson and grabbed it, and that the next thing he remembered was that someone shouted at him to stop. He said that he did not remember striking or stabbing Grayson and that the only time he remembered having the knife in his possession was 1 ‘after it was all over.”

There is no merit in defendant’s claim that, since a knife was used in the attack, the evidence shows an assault “with a deadly weapon” within the meaning of section 4500 and is not sufficient to establish an assault “by any means of force likely to produce great bodily injury” within that section. A single crime is set forth in the section, not two separate and distinct crimes, and the assault with a knife, which the evidence shows occurred here, while an assault with a deadly weapon, is also one by means of force likely to produce great bodily harm. No other claim of insufficiency is made, and, after reviewing the record, we have concluded that the evidence is clearly sufficient.