People v. Smith

Accused of shooting his wife to death, David Smith was convicted of murder of the first degree in a trial to the court and sentenced to life imprisonment. The only question presented on this appeal is the sufficiency of the evidence to support the judgment of first degree murder, Defendant contends that the evidence was adequate only as support for a second degree murder conviction, and that this court should exercise the power given to it under section 1181, subdivision 6, of the Penal Code and reduce the crime to murder of the second degree. The case was submitted to the court on the basis of the evidence taken at the preliminary hearing and a psychiatrist’s report offered by defendant.

The circumstances of the crime as revealed by the preliminary hearing were: Defendant had been released from jail about December 12, 1962, after serving a 90-day sentence on a gambling charge. He returned to his rented home at 152 East 111th Street and found a note left by his wife, Earnestine, stating that she had moved. Defendant went to the apartment where his wife was staying and asked to be admitted and she refused him admittance. He asked if she wanted him to break in, accused her of…