Musumeci

Defendant was charged by information with the murder of one E. A. Weber. The jury returned a verdict finding him guilty of the crime of manslaughter. He appeals from the order of the trial court denying his motion for a new trial and from the judgment of imprisonment in the state prison.

Weber, the deceased, was employed as a conductor on one of the street-ears on the Union Street branch of the Municipal Railway system in San Francisco-. On the night of April 20, 1919, at about 10:30 o’clock, defendant Musumeci, together with his sister and brother-in-law and their three children, were passengers on his car. A controversy arose between Weber and the defendant over the payment of fares. During the altercation which followed Musumeci drew a revolver and shot the conductor three times, inflicting wounds from which Weber died -shortly after. Defendant jumped from the car and fled. Some of the passengers on the car and a police officer pursued him and placed him under arrest. When questioned by the .police officer the defendant made a statement concerning the shooting, which, being then and there reduced to writing, the defendant signed. In it he stated that both he and his…