Ashland

The defendant, by an information filed"in the superior court in and for San Joaquin County, was charged with the crime of murder.

The jury found him guilty of murder of the first degree and fixed the punishment at imprisonment in the state prison for the term of his natural life. (Pen. Code, sec. 190.)

This appeal is from the judgment and the order denying the defendant a new trial.

No claim is made that the evidence does not support the verdict, but the contention is that the court committed a number of prejudicial errors in the matter of giving, refusing, and modifying certain instructions.

The facts and circumstances leading to and attending the commission of the homicide are undisputed, and are substantially as follows: The defendant was a married man, whose family consisted of his wife, aged 24 years, and four children, aged respectively, six, four, and two years and the youngest eight months. With his wife and family he came to California from Philadelphia in the year 1909,- and a short time after his arrival in this state he purchased a twenty acre tract of land near a place called and known as Avena, in San Joaquin County. With his family he settled on this land. He…