Davis

Defendant was convicted of the crime of murder and sentenced to be imprisoned in the state prison for the remainder of Ms natural life. An appeal has been taken from the judgment and from an order denying a motion for a new trial. The person alleged to have been the subject of the homicide was one William G-. Wheeler.

The proof against appellant was wholly that adduced from circumstantial evidence. Deceased was a man between the ages of forty-five and fifty years and was engaged with the appellant, who is an old man over the age of seventy-three years, in conducting, in a small way, a photograph business at the town of Sawtelle in Los Angeles County. It appeared in the evidence that appellant first met the deceased at Long Beach and there the two became very friendly, with the result that they arranged to go to Sawtelle and engage in the business mentioned together. They took up their residence at the latter place some time in November, 1913. So far as the evidence shows, the men continued together amicably up to the time of the death of Wheeler. On the morning of January 1, 1914, at about the hour of 5 o’clock, the small frame building in which the two men lived was discovered…