Tugwell

By verdict of a jury, and judgment pursuant thereto, the defendant has been convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison at San Quentin for the term of his natural life. He appeals from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

In order to determine whether a new trial should have been granted on account of errors occurring at the former trial it is necessary to review the circumstances shown by the evidence. In general terms, two questions are at issue. Did the deceased come to her death by the unlawful act of some person other than herself ? If the first question be answered in the affirmative, then was she killed by the defendant?

On Monday, the thirty-first day of August, 1914, Mrs. Maud Kennedy, a widow and about 48 years old, was living at 1057 East Twenty-first Street, at the corner of Griffin Avenue, in the city of Los Angeles. She was of slight figure, weighing not far from one hundred pounds. Living with her at that place were her son Philip and his wife Pearl M. Kennedy, and one Bert de Normandy who appears to have been there as a boarder. Philip was only 20 years old, and he and his mother had…