Wolcott

The charging part of the information to which the defendant pleaded not guilty and upon which he was tried before a jury for murder and convicted of manslaughter is as follows: “The said Harold Ernest Wolcott is accused ... of the crime of murder, a felony, committed as follows: That the said Harold Ernest Wolcott on or about the 13th day of August, 1933, . . . did wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously and with malice aforethought, murder one Helen Bendowsld, a human being.” After the return of the verdict a motion for new trial was made and denied and sentence was pronounced. Defendant appeals from the order denying the motion for a new trial and from the judgment following the verdict reached by the jury.

Appellant, aged about thirty-three years, and the deceased, Helen Bendowski, aged about thirty years, were very close associates and had been for several years. They had been “keeping company” since 1921. The two had had several serious and violent quarrels, and appellant had intimated that he intended to do the right thing by deceased, when asked why the two did not marry. However, in 1925 he married another, a widow, concealing and denying the marriage to deceased and to…