Hodges

The defendant Hodges was, jointly with Anthony W. Patton, E. T. McCoy and G. M. Hunter, charged with the crime of murder in an indictment returned by the grand jury of Imperial County. The defendant Hunter was never apprehended, the defendant Patton was given a separate trial, and the defendants Hodges and McCoy were tried together. The jury found the defendant Hodges guilty of manslaughter and, under an advisory instruction by the court, found the defendant McCoy not guilty. Defendant Hodges has appealed from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

The general facts relating to the offense of which the appellant was convicted, may be briefly summarized as follows: For about a week prior to December 8, 1930, be tween 100 and 140 Filipinos had been living in the loft of an old barn in the city of Imperial. The presence of the Filipinos was resented by many persons in 'and around Imperial, to the extent that it had become a general topic of conversation on the streets and the resentment had become so pronounced that some of the talk amounted to veiled, if not open, threats against them. At about 8 o’clock on the evening of December 8, 1930, a bomb…