Piazza

The defendant was charged by indictment found and returned by the grand jury of Glenn County with the crime of murder and upon a trial before a petit jury in the superior court of said county was found guilty of the crime of manslaughter. He appeals from the judgment of conviction and the order denying his motion for a new trial, and in support thereof urges the validity of the following assignments: 1. That the verdict is not supported by the evidence; 2. That the court erred in certain of its rulings relative to the evidence; 3. That a certain instruction, proposed by the defendant, as given, was so modified as to render it an incomplete statement of the rule sought to be declared therein; 4. That the district attorney, in his argument to the jury, was guilty of misconduct, the necessary effect of which was to prejudice seriously the accused in the minds of the jury; 5. That the foreman of the jury that tried defendant was guilty of prejudicial misconduct.

Preliminarily, and as conducive to an orderly presentation and understanding of the immediate circumstances attending the act of killing, it is proper to explain certain transactions of a business nature affecting the…