Costa

Defendant was charged with the crime of murder. He was found guilty of manslaughter and now appeals from a judgment of conviction and from an order denying his motion for a new trial. The grounds advanced for a reversal of the judgment are two: First, errors of the court in sustaining objections to questions asked on behalf of the defendant for the purpose of proving certain dying declarations of the deceased; second, errors of the court in refusing to give certain instructions offered on behalf of the defendant.

Defendant killed the deceased, Edward Farmer, on Monday evening, September 17, 1923, in the city of Los Angeles. On Saturday, immediately preceding this evening, there had been some controversy between the two, at which time the deceased said to the defendant, “I am going to get you, or you are going to get me.” Whereupon, according to the testimony of the defendant he walked away from the deceased to avoid trouble. Defendant and the deceased were both members of the order of Eagles, and it was in the Eagles’ clubrooms in that city where the above-mentioned controversy took place. The defendant further testified that on the night of the homicide he attended a meeting at…