Hubbard

Defendant was charged with the murder of one Dennis Cope. He was convicted of murder in the second degree and now appeals from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

The killing, which was admitted, was caused by a bullet from defendant’s pistol, discharged in the course of a scuffle while defendant was endeavoring to eject Cope from a house occupied by the defendant and one Lillian Hopkins, a young woman with whom he was living in a meretricious relation. Defendant testified that the discharge of the pistol was accidental and unintentional. His principal contention here is that the trial court erred in refusing to give an instruction, presently to be quoted, which would have advised the jury that he could rightfully use all force reasonably necessary to eject Cope from the premises.

‘The main facts in the ease are substantially as follows: On June 18, 1922, defendant, under the name of M. L. Hopkins, rented a house and paid the first month’s rent, falsely representing to the owner that he and Lillian Hopkins were husband and wife. The couple moved into the house on June 20th and occupied it together until the evening of the shooting—June 21st. At…