Liera

The appellant Liera having been convicted of the crime of murder in the second degree, was sentenced to state prison for a term of years. His appeal is from the judgment.

At about 11 o’clock on the night of June 7, 1914, the deceased, Teofilo Gonzales, was asleep in the house of Alberto Hernandez in the county of Los Angeles. Several members of the Hernandez family were in the house and all had retired for the night. At this time the defendant, together with Juan Lopez and Tomas Estrada, came to the house and knocked at the door. These men were followed in a few minutes by Mrs. Hermana, who lived with Lopez. Shortly afterward, some controversy having arisen, these visitors and some of the Hernandez household were talking together near the house. Thereupon Teofilo Gonzales, roused from sleep by the disturbance, came out and as he came out he asked, “What is the difficulty”? Juan Lopez replied: “Whatever you want,” and at the same time struck Gonzales on the left side of the head in the temporal region with a beer bottle. Gonzales fell backward to the ground, and immediately thereafter the defendant Liera fired five times with a pistol, putting five bullets into the body of…