People v. Largent

PEEK, J. This is an appeal by defendant from a judgment of conviction following a jury verdict finding him guilty ■ of the crime of assault with a deadly weapon.

Shortly after midnight on June 3, 1957, the victim, Raul Perez, was in a bar at Weed, California. In the bar at the same time were the defendant and several other customers. As Perez was returning from the restroom, he heard the defendant say to a man sitting next to him, “You have to watch these Mexicans and Niggers, they all carry knives.” Upon hearing this, Perez confronted the defendant, stating, “This is one Mexican you don’t have to worry about. I don’t carry a knife.” Perez testified that as he said this he raised his hands. Defendant replied, “Don’t hit me. I got a broken jaw.” There was additional testimony concerning Perez’s actions immediately before the assault; to wit, that he invited the defendant outside the bar, and that he raised his hands as if to strike him. Defendant then cut Perez with a knife, inflicting two wounds upon his stomach. Others at the bar forced defendant to drop the knife on the floor.

Defendant does not deny that, he cut Perez but contends that he did so in self-defense. His first contention is that the court erred in allowing in evidence only the portions of the conversation previously quoted and in refusing defendant the right to put in evidence all of the conversation between defendant and the bar patrons. The record in this regard shows that during the course of defense counsel’s opening statement, the court interrupted, the jury was excused and counsel requested to make an offer of proof. In substance the offer was that prior to the attack one of the persons in the group at the bar asked the defendant if he lived in that [509]vicinity, and he replied that he did. The person then asked concerning Perez who had just gone into the men’s restroom, saying that he seemed to be belligerent and claimed that he had been a Golden Gloves fighter. The defendant replied that he didn’t know anything about that and added, “Normally, I watch out for Mexicans and Niggers, because they carry knives. ’ ’ The quoted portion of the conversation was all that was heard by Perez. The court ruled that such evidence was inadmissible, and the trial continued. This court, in People v. Yokum, 145 Cal.App.2d 245, at page 259 [302 P.2d 406], quoted with approval the general rule expressed in 64 American Law Reports 1029, 1030:

“The rule is supported by many authorities that on a trial for homicide, or for an assault and battery, the defendant, after laying a proper foundation by evidence tending to show that, in committing the homicide or assault, he acted in self-defense, may introduce evidence of the turbulent and dangerous character of the deceased or party assaulted. . . . [T]he law recognizes the well-established fact in human experience that the known reputation or character of an assailant as to violence and turbulence has a very material bearing on the degree and nature of the apprehension of danger on the part of a person assaulted; ...”