People v. Groves

BARNARD, P. J. The defendant was convicted of the crime of manslaughter and has appealed from the judgment and from an order denying a motion for a new trial.

One Crawford Clark, who was the manager of a collection agency at Brawley, had a claim against the appellant which was, in part, disputed by him. Clark had been trying to locate the appellant’s automobile and about 5:30 o’clock on the evening of February 14, 1934, on one of the main street corners in Brawley, one Palmquist told the appellant that Clark was looking for his ear. While they were talking they saw Clark coming down the street and Palmquist left. The appellant testified that when he saw Clark he said to Palmquist, “There he is, I will see him”; that he then walked up to Clark and Clark asked him about the bill; that he told Clark he did not owe it all, but was intending to pay it; that Clark replied: “You owe it all, all right, you just [127]don’t want to pay it”; that Clark then asked him where his automobile was; that he told him and then called him a son-of-a-bitch and further said: “It is time you were leaving me alone”; that Clark thereupon struck at him with his right hand; that he knocked Clark’s blow off; that Clark kept coming; that “we had three or four licks”; that Clark clutched him; and that “while he had his hands up there he had his head out and I hit him three or four times as hard as I could”. He further testified that as he jerked loose “I hit him and knocked him over against the bank building and down he went,” and that “I saw he was out when he hit the window.”

A merchants’ patrolman testified that he was across the street when his attention was called to the trouble; that when he looked he saw the deceased lying on the sidewalk with the appellant standing beside him; that after he looked he saw the appellant strike the deceased twice and, he thought, a third time. Another witness testified that after he saw the officer run across the street he saw a man lying on the sidewalk, that he started to run up that way, and that just before he got there the appellant “was leaning over him and made two passes or strikes at him about the face”. Another witness testified: “I was walking along and I walked up down to the bank and I saw that man laying down on the ground and I saw the other man hit him in his face with his feet.” One of appellant’s witnesses testified : “Well, I was just walking along there and all at once I seen a couple of parties starting to fight, at least this big heavy-set fellow, the one with the glasses on, he made a pass at Groves. At the time I didn’t know Groves. I had never met Groves until the first inquest that they had there, and they kind of had a little struggle and they were fighting there and I seen Mr. Clark make a pass at Mr. Groves and didn’t hit him. He didn’t hit him and he kept coming toward Mr. Groves and Mr. Groves whaled him one and hit him in the mouth and he went against the bank and the right side of his head hit the bank wall and he went right on down”. Another witness for the appellant testified: “There were only two blows I could see and that was one struck by each one of the two, the short man struck at the tall man and missed him and the other one hit him and knocked him down. Q. You said the first thing that