People v. Richardson

Defendant was convicted after trial by jury of murder in tlie second degree. From the judgment and order denying his motion for a new trial he appeals. There is also a purported appeal from the verdict and sentence.

Viewing the evidence most favorable to the prosecution (People v. Dukes, 90 Cal. App. 657, 659 [ 266 Pac. 558 ]), the facts are these:

June 11, 1937, at about 1 o’clock in the morning, while Roy Brown, Miss Gertrude Brown, defendant, his wife, and others were riding in defendant’s automobile, Roy Brown and defendant engaged in an argument over the amount of gasoline then in the car. Shortly afterward they arrived at defendant’s home and all of the occupants of the automobile alighted, whereupon defendant walked up behind Roy Brown, called him “a dirty rat” and stabbed him with a knife, from which wound he died.

Defendant relies for reversal of the judgment on these propositions:

As to defendant’s first proposition, we have examined the record and find there was substantial evidence considered in connection with such inferences as the jury may have reasonably drawn therefrom to sustain every material finding of fact upon which the jury’s verdict was necessarily…