Ybarra

Appellant was convicted of the crime of murder in the first degree and the penalty fixed at life imprisonment. This appeal is based principally upon alleged insufficiency of the evidence to establish the corpus delicti; also upon an alibi, and asserted errors in ruling upon the admissibility of evidence, and in the instructions to the jury.

In attempting to establish the corpus delicti it was sought to introduce statements of the deceased, and much evidence was offered for the purpose of showing that he was impressed with a consciousness of impending death at the time they were made. The first point of appellant is that this foundation was not sufficient to permit of the introduction of the decedent’s declarations as to his injuries and concerning the person or persons who had inflicted them upon him.

On Sunday, August 26, 1923, at about 9:30 in the evening, a police officer first saw Gordon McCutcheon, the decedent, in an alleyway, in the city of Los Angeles, in a stooping position, as if arising to his feet; when the policeman approached he observed that McCutcheon had apparently been beaten about the face, and that there was blood on his face and on the front of his clothing.…