Chavez

A jury found defendants Manuel Chavez, Clyde Bates, and Manuel Hernandez guilty of murder of the first degree as charged in six counts. The punishment of Bates and Chavez was fixed at death and that of Hernandez at life imprisonment. The jury further found that each of the three defendants was guilty of arson and that, as alleged, Bates had suffered four prior convictions. The appeals of Bates and Chavez are before us automatically under section 1239, subdivision (b), of the Penal Code. Separate notice of appeal was filed by Hernandez.

A fourth man, Oscar Brenhaug, was charged with the same offenses, but the indictment was set aside as to him on the ground that he had been indicted without reasonable or probable cause. (See Pen. Code, § 995.)

About 11 p. m. on April 4, 1957, six persons died as a result of a fire in a Los Angeles bar called the Mecca. Five were killed by carbon monoxide, and the death of the sixth was caused by asphyxia and burns. During the morning and afternoon of that day Bates and Brenhaug consumed considerable amounts of alcoholic beverages, including wine, beer, bourbon, and tequila. Early in the evening they met Chavez and Hernandez, who joined them in…