People v. Yee King

This is an appeal from the judgment and from the order denying a new trial in a case where the defendant was convicted of murder in the second degree and sentenced to serve twenty years in the state prison.

The evidence adduced upon the entire case is substantially as follows: John C. Gatlin, a witness for the people, testified that shortly before the commission of the homicide, at about the hour of 9 o’clock in the evening, he was walking down Stockton Street toward its intersection with Washington Street in San Francisco, in what is known as the Chinatown district. He came to the comer of Stockton and Washington Streets, and continued along Stockton Street about one hundred and twenty-five feet when he heard a shot, and turning around saw the forms of three men, one of whom seemed to be struggling with the other two. He turned back to the scene of the encounter. There were four more shots. The witness noticed the flashes directed toward the body of the one man who seemed to be struggling with the other two, and who, after a futile effort to ward off his assailants, fell to the ground mortally wounded. Thereupon the assailants turned and ran in a northwesterly direction across…