People v. Harmon

By information defendant was charged with the murder of Johnnie Lee Jackson (§ 187, Pen. Code). Her motion to set aside the information (§ 995, Pen. Code) was granted. She argued, on the basis of testimony that before Mrs. McCullough heard two shots she heard a female voice say, “You are going to kill me, you are going to kill me,” that the evidence showed self-defense. The People appeal from the order.

Jackson died of a gunshot wound of the abdomen inflicted by defendant with a .22 caliber Derringer pistol.

Mrs. McCullough lived in the apartment directly over the one occupied by Jackson and defendant. Around 5:30 a.m. she was awakened by “rumbling noises” which sounded “like turning over things or running over something,”, and voices; she then heard a female voice say, “You are going to kill me. You are going to kill me” and, in “less than 10 minutes,” a sound like two “firecracker shots” and a door slam, and saw a woman run down the sidewalk, get into an orange car, which she had previously seen defendant drive, and leave.

Around 5:25 a.m. defendant walked into the police station saying to Officer Smith, “I want to report a murder”; she gave her address, name and…