Marx

Defendant Walter Marx was indicted by a grand jury for murder, and, after a court trial, was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to prison.

Facts

The victim was Lovey Benovsky, a woman possibly 75 years of age. Defendant boarded at Benovsky’s home on weekends. Benovsky was last seen at about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 2, 1974, by a neighbor with whom she had been watching television. The next day, Sunday, at about 3 p.m., another neighbor, learning that Benovsky had not been seen that day, went to her home and looked in the front window into her bedroom. Benovsky was lying on her bed; there was blood on the pillow. The neighbor called the police.

Firemen arrived first. The neighbor’s wife knew where a house key was hidden and gave it to the firemen. The fire department captain testified that the body was in kneeling position when he arrived. The police arrived shortly thereafter. The victim was found nude, lying face down on a bed. The mattress was bloody, but there was no other blood in the room. A bath towel found in the bathroom had blood on it.

Human blood was found on a pair of Levis belonging to defendant. The blood could not be typed,…