Hill

The defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to imprisonment for life. He appeals from the judgment, from an order denying him a new trial, from an order denying his motion in arrest of judgment, and from the verdict of the jury.

The appeals from the order denying the motion in arrest of judgment and from the verdict are unauthorized by law, and may therefore be ignored.

The defendant shot and killed Wilbur L. Carlton, a streetcar conductor, in the city of Pasadena. The killing was the culmination of a dispute between defendant and the conductor as to whether defendant had, on a previous trip, by mistake, given the conductor a five-dollar piece, thinking it was a nickel.

1. The appellant contends that the evidence, taking the worst view of it for defendant, establishes no greater crime than that of manslaughter. The evidence was very conflicting. The testimony of one set of eye-witnesses to the controversy and shooting showed that the defendant shot the conductor without any previous hostile demonstrations or threats on the part of the latter, and because the latter denied receiving the five dollars and refused to restore it to defendant. Another set…