Hatfield

Joseph R. Hatfield, John Williams and Robert Kloss were jointly charged by indictment with the crime of murder and tried together. The jury found Williams and Kloss not guilty and found Hatfield guilty of manslaughter, and he has appealed from the ensuing judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

It appears that on May 10, 1932, a Mexican named B. Gomez was living with the appellant in a one-room house on the bank of the Alamo River, near the city of Calipatria. The appellant admits that some time on the afternoon of that day he shot and killed Gomez, claiming, however, that the act was done in self-defense. At the .time of the shooting Williams and Kloss were present, as was also one John Robertson, although he was asleep at. the time. All of the parties had been drinking home brew and, according to the testimony of the three defendants, just before the shooting occurred the appellant ran out of the house with a rifle in his hand pursued by Gomez armed with a knife. The appellant ran to the back of a car standing a few feet from the house and about the time Gomez reached the front of the car and turned around, the appellant fired the fatal shot. After…