Ford

An indictment was returned, September 8, 1913, against the defendant for the murder of E. T. Manwell on the third day of August, 1913, at the county of Yuba. On October 30, 1913, H. D. Suhr was indicted and, still later, November 4, 1913, William Beck and Harry Bagan were jointly indicted, all for the same crime. By stipulation all the defendants were tried jointly. Beck and Bagan were acquitted and Ford and Suhr were convicted of murder in the second degree and each was sentenced to imprisonment for life in the state’s prison. The record in case No. 253 presents the appeal of defendant Ford from the judgment of conviction and from the order denying his motion for a new trial. By stipulation the appeal of defendant Suhr, No. 254, is to be heard upon the transcript brought up in No. 253.

1. On November 28, 1913, defendant Ford made a motion “for an order transferring this cause to some convenient county for trial and that some judge other than the Honorable Eugene P. McDaniel hear the same.” The ground of the motion was that the defendant cannot have a fair trial in Tuba County “by reason of the bias and prejudice and high feeling against the said defendant, and that the said…