People v. Chun Heong

— This is an appeal by the defendant from a judgment of life imprisonment upon a conviction of murder in the first degree. Numerous errors are assigned.

1. We cannot say that the superior court erred in overruling defendant’s motion for a new trial for the reason that the verdict is contrary to the evidence. Although there is a serious conflict in the evidence, and, as it appears, from the bill of exceptions, even a preponderance in favor of the defendant upon his defense of alibi, still, as there is sufficient evidence to support the verdict, it must be assumed that the jury, who saw and heard the witnesses for the defense, had good reason for discrediting their statements.

2. The superior court did not err in excluding from evidence the newspaper accounts of the killing and of the arrest of the defendant. They were not competent evidence of any material fact in the case, and were not rendered admissible by reason of the fact that they might have tended to corroborate the statements of one of defendant’s witnesses upon purely collateral matters called out upon cross-examination. There had been no attempt to impeach the witness upon these points, nor any question made as to the…