People v. Young

PER CURIAM. The defendant was charged with murder, and appeals from a judgment convicting him of manslaughter and from an order denying him a new trial.

It appears that on the twentieth day of July, 1899, at 4 or 5 o’clock in the afternoon, the defendant and Caleb Greenwood, with several other persons, were in the saloon of Charles Lockhart,. near Monroe postoffice, in Mendocino county. Greenwood and defendant being both under the influence. of liquor, they were soon engaged in a war of words, which concluded with Greenwood committing a violent, brutal and unjustifiable assault on Young, in which Young was thrown down on the floor at least twice. He was kicked and badly wounded in the face, the clothes were torn from his body, and he was otherwise maltreated by Greenwood. This brutality finally ended, without any interference on the part of the bystanders, and Young retired to a rear room, re-clothed himself, returned, treated all hands, including Greenwood, and left the saloon. About two hours later Young reappeared at the saloon with a Winchester rifle in his hands, [635]and inquired for Greenwood. He remained on and about the premises for about half an hour, and during that time he took a drink with a friend, and asserted that he was a bad man, and would not be walked on, talked about shooting the bottles off the bar, wanted to find Greenwood, and said, “I’ll fix him; I’ll allow no man to stamp me in the floor.” Soon after all this, and about two and one-half hours after the assault on him by Greenwood, the defendant went out at the front door of the saloon, with his gun still in his hands, intending, as he testified, to go to the pump at the rear of the saloon to wash the blood off his face. When the defendant was near the rear end of the saloon, he saw Greenwood at the rear door thereof, and shot him twice, from the effects of which Greenwood died on the following day. The defendant testified that immediately before the shooting Greenwood straightened up, and slapped his left hand on his hip pocket, and said, “I am heeled, you son-of-a-bitch.’’ Defendant also testified that before the trouble with Greenwood, and on that same day, he saw the handle of a pistol in Greenwood's pocket. An apparently disinterested eye-witness testified that at the time of the shooting Greenwood was standing with one foot on the step, with his hand on the door, and the right hand by his side, and made no hostile movement, and, when Young came around, Greenwood said, “Don’t shoot me, Gib! ’ ’ Another witness, who heard the shooting, and went to Greenwood where he fell, and stayed with him till he was removed, testified that he searched Greenwood, and found no weapon on him. There was no evidence except defendant’s testimony tending to show that Greenwood was armed at the time of the shooting. It was shown without conflict in the evidence that Greenwood’s reputation in the neighborhood for peace and quietude was bad, and that defendant was well acquainted with that fact.