Aguirre

This is an appeal from a judgment imposing the death penalty and from an order denying a motion for a new trial.

On Sunday, July 25, 1937, at 8:30 P. M., the defendant, a Mexican, 29 years of age, killed Gabriel Contreras, also a Mexican, 38 years of age, by shooting him in the head with a revolver. The homicide occurred at the ranch home of the deceased located in a sparsely settled section of the desert country about three miles from the town of Thermal in the *250 Coachella Valley. The deceased was living at his ranch place with his four children, the oldest being twelve years of age, and with the mother of his children, Pilar Gonzales, also known as Pilar Contreras. The deceased and Pilar had lived together as husband and wife since 1925, although no civil marriage ceremony had been performed.

The deceased had moved with his family from Oasis to the ranch near Thermal about one year before the homicide. Shortly thereafter the defendant stopped at that ranch in search of a place to live, whereupon arrangements were made under which the defendant was to live with the deceased and his family while he worked for the deceased or in the vicinity. The defendant agreed to the…