People v. Aguilar

MUNDO, J., pro tem. The defendant was charged, by an information filed in the Superior Court of Fresno County, with the crime of murder. Upon arraignment he entered a plea of not guilty and was tried before a jury which returned a verdict convicting him of manslaughter. A motion for a new trial was denied. The defendant then perfected this appeal from the judgment and from the order of the trial court denying his motion for a new trial.

The grounds upon which appellant relies for a reversal of the judgment and order denying his motion for new trial are as follows: 1. That the evidence is insufficient to support the judgment in that it does not sufficiently show that appellant Pete Aguilar, while driving the automobile which caused the death of Lucius powers, Sr., was intoxicated. 2. That the court erred in admitting into evidence a statement made by Pete Aguilar taken shortly after the accident. 3. That the court erred in refusing to give instructions requested by the defendant. 4. That the court erred in giving certain instructions offered by the prosecution.

It appears from the evidence that one Lucius Powers, Sr., was, on the fourth day of September, 1933, at about the hour of 5:30 o’clock in the evening, operating an automobile in a northerly direction on U. S. California Highway No. 99, and that when he was at a point on said highway approximately two miles north of the city of Fowler his car collided with an automobile being driven in a southerly direction by the defendant Pete Aguilar. The point of impact was on the left front wheel of each automobile. At the place over which the two cars were being driven the highway is divided into three traffic lanes. The cars came together in the easterly one.

Both Powers and the defendant were, shortly after the collision, taken to the emergency hospital in Fresno. Powers died from injuries received in the collision some three or four hours later. The defendant was removed to the county hospital, where he remained for a period of approximately seven days.

Both sides agree that the case revolves around the question as to whether the defendant was under the influence of in[90]toxicating liquor at the time of the collision. Mr. Stapleton, a nurse at the emergency hospital, testified that defendant’s breath was alcoholic. He asked the defendant if he had been drinking, and the defendant replied, “I drink jackass”. Mr. Stapleton was asked by the district attorney to “state whether or not in your opinion, . . . , the use of intoxicating liquor had so far affected this defendant, as you saw him that night, to affect to an appreciable degree his ability to operate an automobile”, and the answer was, “it had”. Upon cross-examination he stated that he made no examination as to intoxication but determined that defendant was intoxicated because of his alcoholic breath and thick tongue and his thick speech.