People v. William Yee

The defendant, jointly with two other Chinese, named, respectively, ■ Toy Took and Lee Sing Park, was charged by information filed in the superior court of Sonoma County with the crime of murder. The defendant was given a separate trial and was convicted of murder of the first degree, the jury fixing the penalty at imprisonment for life. He appeals from the judgment and the order denying him a new trial.

The homicide occurred on Sunday, the eleventh day of March, 1917, at about the hour of 3 P. M., on the farm, of one Finley, situated between four and five miles north of the city of Santa Rosa.

The deceased, one Horn Hong, at the time of the homicide, was employed as a laborer on the Finley ranch, as were some dozen or more other Chinese.

There is ample evidence from which the jury were warranted in finding these facts: That, at about the noon hour of the said eleventh day of March, one Potter, a taxicab driver at Santa Rosa, received an order by telephone from Sebastopol, a town situated a short distance from Santa Rosa, for a taxicab; that, acting upon the order so received, he drove to Sebastopol and upon reaching a point near that town was stopped by a Chinaman, who was…