People v. Rider

PEEK, J. This is an appeal from only that portion of the judgment finding the degree of the crime to have been murder of the first degree.

Defendant was charged by way of indictment with the crime of murder. He was arraigned and entered a plea of [354]not guilty of the crime charged. Thereafter he was re-arraigned and entered an additional plea of not guilty by reason of insanity which latter plea was subsequently withdrawn. The matter proceeded to trial by the court sitting with a jury which returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree and fixed the punishment at life imprisonment. Appellant’s sole contention is that the evidence viewed as a whole is insufficient to sustain the judgment of first degree murder.

In view of the nature of defendant’s contention, it becomes necessary to discuss in detail only that portion of the evidence relating to the facts and circumstances relied upon by the prosecution to establish that the murder was committed in the perpetration of a robbery. Present counsel for defendant did not represent him at the trial but was appointed for the purpose of this appeal. Although he has ably and with obvious diligence discussed the evidence at length, such a discussion would more properly be directed to a jury than to a reviewing court.

This court is, at the outset, confronted with the first rule of review—that we must “ ‘assume in favor of the verdict the existence of every fact which the jury could have reasonably deduced from the evidence’ ” (People v. Newland, 15 Cal.2d 678, 681 [104 P.2d 778]), and if the evidence, when viewed by such rule, proves sufficient, it necessarily follows that the judgment must be sustained.

The record shows that defendant was badly in need of money. On the morning of December 1, 1953, he pawned his watch for $3.00 and obtained some gasoline on credit. Shortly after noon on that day, he went to an auto wrecking establishment in North Sacramento and there borrowed a hack saw with which he sawed off the barrels of a shotgun. He testified this was to remove a dent in the barrels; however, he sawed them off more than eight inches from the point of damage, thereby unnecessarily shortening the barrels. Thereafter he drove to a point near Sacramento where he fired the gun several times to see if it was functioning properly.

Just prior to December 1, 1953, defendant had been contacted on numerous occasions by a Mr. Walton who demanded that he make good that day on several cheeks which had been cashed by Mr. Walton, and which had been returned because of insufficient funds. Walton had informed defendant that unless he complied with such demands, he (Walton) was