People v. Rielly

BARNARD, P. J. The defendant shot and killed her mother on March 27, 1950. She and her husband lived with the mother in a house belonging to the mother. While she was cleaning her mother’s room a man came to collect two payments on her automobile. She agreed to make one payment and to meet him an hour later to arrange for easier payments. She gave him a check for $102, knowing she had no money' in the bank. She had previously tried, without success, to get her mother to mortgage the house as security for her debts. When the man left, she asked her mother for financial help. The mother refused and began to criticise her about the way she was handling the finances of her family. She resumed her cleaning in the mother’s room, and the mother continued with her criticism. She then picked up a .22 rifle which was in the mother’s room, went to the kitchen door, and shot her mother in the back of her head.

[234]The defendant then drove to the office of her brother-in-law and told him she had just killed her mother. In reply to his question as to what had happened she told him that a man had called to collect a delinquent automobile payment; that her mother injected herself into the conversation, berating the defendant and her husband for their inability to handle their finances; that she tried to quiet her mother and keep her from making a scene; that finally she wrote a check for $102 and the man left; that her mother “increased her tirade against her”; that she was overwrought and upset and went into the bedroom and her mother went into the kitchen; that she started vacuuming to relieve her tension; that she could still hear her mother talking over the noise of the vacuum cleaner; that as she worked she noticed the gun in the bedroom ; that she picked up the gun, walked to the door and fired one shot; and that she did not know why she did it. The brother-in-law also testified that the defendant said she had asked her mother for help several times before, that her mother knew she was desperate and needed help, and that she had asked the mother to let her borrow money on the house to clear up her debts. '

A deputy sheriff, who was called in by the brother-in-law, asked the defendant what happened. She replied: “I have stood things just as long as I could, and I shot my mother.” A little later she told this officer that she had had financial troubles, that she had asked her mother for- aid and been refused, and that she had “shot her with a .22 rifle.”

Later the same day, the defendant told another officer that she had wanted her mother to mortgage the property so she could pay some bills; that her mother refused and argued; that while she did not get mad very easily, 111 think I came to a head and I couldn’t stand any more”; and that she had got the gun and shot her mother. She also told a deputy coroner that she had asked her mother for help several days before; that the visit of the collector brought it to a head; that it was bothering her terribly and it was more than she could take; that she and her mother did not argue very long; that after she was convinced her mother was not going to give her financial'assistance she went into the bedroom and started to work; and that she saw the gun and just picked it up and shot her mother.