People v. Murphy

Defendant was charged with having, on the fifteenth day of April, 1915, murdered William Murphy. Upon her trial a verdict of manslaughter was returned by the jury and the court sentenced her to serve a term of two years’ imprisonment in the state penitentiary. Motion for a new trial having been made and denied, an appeal was taken from that adverse order. An appeal was also taken from the judgment.

Deceased was the husband of appellant and at the time of the alleged homicide the two were living on a little ranch in the neighborhood of La Canada in the county of Los Angeles. Their habitation consisted of a tent, adjacent to which was a small wooden building. Fruit trees and grape vines were set about the place. Some time after, but near the noon hour, on April 15th, a neighbor named Lane, whose ranch adjoined that upon which the Murphys lived, heard the sound of a gun shot, which was followed by heavy groans, coming from the direction of the Murphy tent. He waited a moment and then started, as he testified, on a run in the direction from which the sound of the shot came. On his way he motioned to another neighbor at work in a vineyard to follow him. Lane testified that when he…