People v. Smith

On the night of July 12, 1971, an unknown assailant entered the Dog Bar campground, located on the Bear River in Nevada County. He entered the tent of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Garbe, attacked them, pursued them outside, then attacked other campers, hacking and stabbing with a curved knife which witnesses compared to a sickle. When the episode had run its course, two campers were seriously wounded and two were dead. The assailant disappeared.

Ultimately, defendant Clarence Otis Smith was identified as the attacker. He lived approximately two miles from the Dog Bar campground by road and about one and one-tenth miles cross-country. Tinted prescription eyeglasses (bearing bloodstains and with a cracked lens) belonging to him were found at the Dog Bar campground. In a sump behind his house officers found a curved knife resembling the death weapon and a .41 caliber Reuger pistol which had belonged to John Simmons, one of the dead victims. During the two days preceding the attack defendant had displayed such a curved knife to friends and acquaintances. Kenneth Garbe, a wounded camper, identified defendant as the assailant.

A jury trial resulted in verdicts finding defendant…