Shaw

In an information filed by the District Attorney of San Bernardino County, defendant was charged with the murder of Pecóla Shaw. The defendant entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity; he subsequently withdrew the latter plea. A jury found him guilty of murder of the first degree and made no recommendation as to penalty. Upon such verdict the defendant was sentenced to death. This is an automatic appeal from the judgment as provided by subdivision (b) of section 1239 of the Penal Code. No brief has been filed and no appearance made on behalf of defendant herein. It has therefore been necessary for us independently to examine the record of the proceedings. From such examination it appears that the judgment must be affirmed.

From the testimony the following facts appear: In 1941 the defendant left San Bernardino, where he and his wife Pecóla had resided, and went to Oakland. Although the defendant provided a home for her in Oakland, his wife would not leave San Bernardino, where she resided in a rooming house owned or maintained by the witness Garland Hardage, known in his local community as King George. She stayed at the Hardage house intermittently over a…