Heacock

Defendant was convicted of murder of the second degree and was sentenced to imprisonment for the period of fifteen years. He appeals from the judgment and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

Defendant and his wife were living in a house belonging to deceased, Fred Steinhart, in the town of Caspar, Mendocino county, and deceased occupied a room in the same building. He was a laborer, working in a lumber camp, from which he had returned in the evening on May 4, 1908, the day of his death. So far as disclosed by the evidence, he was last seen alive about the hour of 7 P. M. of that day on his way to his room. He made some small purchases at the store of the Caspar Lumber Company and from there went to a saloon, where he had one or two drinks of beer and purchased fifteen cents’ worth to take with him. He was somewhat intoxicated, though not staggeringly drunk. He was not again seen by any witness at the trial until about 9 o’clock, two hours later, when his dead body was found lying on the floor of the sitting-room occupied by defendant and his wife, both being present, when the neighbors first became aware of the death of the deceased. A stairway led from this…