Henry E. Hunt v. Louis S. Nelson, Warden, California State Prison, San Quentin, California

After exhaustive evidentiary hearings, the district court entered an order denying appellant’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus. He appeals. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

For approximately two months prior to January 25, 1963, the appellant was living in the same house with two women, Ernestine and Betty Pearson. Ernestine, with whom appellant had established a commonlaw relationship, was the mother of three children by a previous commonlaw affair. Betty, only eighteen years of age, had four children, three by the brother of Ernestine. Some time prior to January 25, 1963, Ernestine, without success, attempted to terminate her relationship with appellant. The morning of that day, they had a heated argument which ended when he jabbed a fork into her neck causing her to bleed. When he left the house, he stated to her, “You’ll be sorry, black bitch.” At about 2:30 a.m., appellant returned to their home and was admitted by Betty. Some time after Betty went to sleep, the appellant, according to his statement to the police, which he later denied, went to the back bedroom, set fire to a curtain and departed through the back door. Five children were asleep, the oldest of which was the five…