Talbot

-This is an automatic appeal (Pen. Code, § 1239, subd. (b)) from a judgment, after trial before a jury, on verdicts finding defendant guilty of murder in the first degree and imposing the death penalty.

*695 Facts: On March 13, 1965, about 6 :30 a.m., the mutilated body of Michael Dean Bartholomew was discovered in a rocky beach area below State Highway 1, several miles south of Oxnard, by Sergeant Maurice Mellencamp.

About 9 a.m. Sergeant Wyneken went to defendant’s residence, 5305 Beachcomber, Oxnard Shores, Oxnard. Parked across the street from 5311 Beachcomber were two automobiles, a green 1950 Chevrolet convertible and a white 1960 Rambler. Two areas of the Chevrolet appeared to have blood on them.

Gerald K. Ridge, M.D., who performed an autopsy on the deceased, testified that on the head he found wounds which had resulted primarily from the application of a considerable amount of blunt force; that the left ear was apparently cut off; that there were three stab wounds in the neck; that in his opinion the redness on the undershirt was the result of soaking up a very large amount of blood from the neck wounds; that one of the neck wounds damaged the vascular system; that a…