Romo

A jury found defendant DeWitt guilty of murder of the first degree, and defendant Romo guilty of murder of the second degree; and they have appealed from the judgments.

This case discloses a sordid, gruesome, and tangled skein of facts from which a consistent factual thread stands out with sufficient clarity to make it possible to condense a factual summary.

On December 30, 1973, Romo, Rick Fournier (the murder victim), Kim Treharne (half brother of Romo), Bonnie Tovar (common law wife of DeWitt), Ace Waldner and Linda Drouin (Romo’s girl friend) spent approximately 10 hours at Romo’s residence in Sacramento drinking extensively. At approximately 10:30 p.m., all except Linda Drouin, who was ill, left Romo’s house and traveled to DeWitt’s home. Romo, Kim and Bonnie traveled together, and Fournier and Ace drove to DeWitt’s house in Ace’s car. Fournier appeared to be intoxicated; Romo appeared somewhat intoxicated but was capable of coherently conversing and driving the vehicle from his home to DeWitt’s home without apparent trouble. At DeWitt’s, additional drinking took place. Romo and Fournier (the victim) had a slight altercation but reconciled their differences. DeWitt…