Tedesco

Defendant was charged, by information filed by the Superior Court in and for the County of Los Angeles, with the crime of murder, to wit, the killing of John W. Whitehead. He was tried before a jury, which returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree, without recommendation. A motion for a new trial was made and denied, and thereafter judgment of conviction and sentence to pay the extreme penalty was pronounced. The appeal from the judgment and from the order denying a new trial is now before the court.

The prosecution contends that a motive for the killing of the decedent is found in the fact that the defendant's home was encumbered, and that he was in need of funds which he sought to raise through insurance he succeeded in having placed on the life of the decedent, with himself as the beneficiary.

No one saw the defendant and deceased together immediately prior to the killing. The evidence connecting the defendant with the crime is entirely circumstantial. The scene of the alleged killing was on the Redondo- Wilmington Boulevard, between three and four miles distant from Redondo Beach, in Los Angeles County. Defendant conducted a shoe-repairing shop…

Defendant was charged, by information filed by the Superior Court in- and for the County of Los Angeles, with the crime of murder, to wit, the killing of John W. Whitehead. He was tried before a jury, which returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree, without recommendation. A motion for a new trial was made and denied, and thereafter judgment of conviction and sentence to pay the extreme penalty was pronounced. The appeal from the judgment and from the order denying a new trial is now before the court.

The prosecution contends that a motive for the killing of the decedent is found in the fact that the defendant’s home was encumbered, and that he was in need of funds which he sought to raise through insurance he succeeded in having placed on the life of the decedent, with himself as the beneficiary.

No one saw the defendant and deceased together immediately prior to the killing. The evidence connecting the defendant with the crime is entirely circumstantial. The scene of the alleged killing was on the Redondo-Wilmington Boulevard, between three and four miles distant from Re *214 dondo Beach, in Los Angeles County. Defendant conducted a shoe-repairing shop in the…

I dissent. The evidence in this case was purely circumstantial, and in my opinion insufficient to justify the verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree.

Rehearing denied.

Preston, J., and Langdon, J., dissented.