Moe

Defendant Moe appeals from a conviction under a charge of murdering Carlisle Lord and from an order of the trial court denying his motion for a new trial. [1] One of the points made by appellant is that the evidence in the cause was insufficient to justify the verdict against him. Before we proceed to a discussion of that question, let us recite portions of the evidence which do not bear directly upon it but which are introductory to it. A Mr. Lassen and his wife, and Carlisle Lord, the father of Mrs. Lassen, lived together in a little house in the town of Walteria, which place is nearly fifteen miles — one witness says, with exactness, fourteen and six-tenths miles — from Long Beach. The *Page 742 house had a living-room which was entered from a front porch by means of a door directly opposite a door opening into the kitchen, which latter room was in the rear of the living-room. At one side of the kitchen was a small bedroom, occupied by Mr. Lord, with a door opening from the one room to the other. There was another bedroom in the house, occupied by the Lassens. On the evening of January 20, 1931, soon after dinner and after dark, the Lassens and Lord were engaged in…

It appears to be necessary to give some extended consideration to the voluminous petition for a rehearing in this cause. The paper is specious and might mislead our higher court upon the application for hearing *Page 761 before that tribunal which is sure to be made, if its inaccuracies were not exposed by ourselves, who have taken, of necessity, a long period of time in reaching a conclusion upon the merits of the cause. We may perhaps aid the Supreme Court because it is so strictly limited by law as to the time it may consume in passing upon petitions for hearings before it. It may be said here, as a preface to what we shall say later and in order to accentuate the discussion presented in our main opinion, that this crime with which we have dealt was what is generally known as a "gang" murder — a killing by gangsters. This truth stands out clearly from the record. No other conclusion can possibly be reached under the evidence and counsel for appellant of course know that the assertion is correct, for they heard the evidence and have diligently studied it since its transcription. We did not make the assertion in our former opinion for the reason that the nature of the crime…