Hill v. State

68 P.2d 569, 58 Nev. 28, 1937 Nev. LEXIS 27
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedJune 1, 1937
Docket3178
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 68 P.2d 569 (Hill v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hill v. State, 68 P.2d 569, 58 Nev. 28, 1937 Nev. LEXIS 27 (Neb. 1937).

Opinion

*31 OPINION

By the Court,

Taber, J.:

Defendant was convicted of murder of the second degree in department No. 2 of the Second judicial district court, Washoe County, and sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison for from ten years to life. This appeal is taken from the judgment, and from an order of said district court denying a motion for new trial.

Between 6 and 6: 30 o’clock on the morning of May 12, 1936, on the sidewalk on the west side of Center street between Douglas alley and Commercial row in the city of Reno, witnesses observed defendant, aged seventy, and one Theodore Zoebel, aged eighty, engaged in a violent physical altercation. Aside from the participants, there does not appear to have been any eyewitness to the beginning of the combaf. Zoebel died from stab wounds inflicted upon him by defendant in said encounter. The killing is admitted, but at his trial appellant pleaded self-defense.

Police Officer J. L. Geach testified that upon arriving at the scene of the trouble, he saw Zoebel lying on the sidewalk, and upon being told by by-standers that the man who had done the cutting had proceeded west on Commercial row, he and Officer Dean went partly around the block to the intersection of Virginia street and Douglas alley. There, one Ed Walters pointed to defendant, who at that time was going east in Douglas alley. Thereupon the officers went around to the front entrance of the Wine House on Commercial row, and Officer Geach went through the Wine House and out its back door on Douglas alley, when he again saw defendant proceeding east in that alley between the rear *32 of the Wine House and Center street. The officer caught up with defendant and arrested him just as he was turning into Center street from Douglas alley, about 40 feet south of the place where the officer first found Zoebel lying on the sidewalk.

Defendant was with the officers when they took Zoebel to the hospital. On the way, defendant volunteered the statement two or three times that he was justified in what he had done. When Zoebel was taken into the hospital, Officer Dean also went in, while Geach remained outside with defendant. At this time defendant again stated that he was justified in what he had done and went on to tell Officer Geach that he had just protected ■himself as would any other citizen.

In going through defendant’s pockets at the police station, Mr. Geach found some pieces of rope, a pocket knife, and a piece of toilet paper stained with what appeared to be blood. Defendant also had a package on his arm, tied with a string. In it was defendant’s lunch. Amongst other things, the lunch package contained a small filled jar, which had been cracked. The pocket knife was an ordinary brown bone-handled pocket knife, with two blades. This is the knife with which defendant claims he stabbed Zoebel. There was no appearance of blood or blood stains on either of the blades of this knife. Defendant told the officer he had wiped the blood off the knife with his fingers. The officer did not notice any bruis'es, scratches, or abrasions on defendant’s face.

After searching defendant at the police station, the officer went back to the scene of the trouble for the purpose of trying to find witnesses who had seen the trouble start. This was about fifty minutes after he had first been called there. While standing in front of the Bank' Club, just south of Douglas alley on Center street, a man identifying himself as a Mr. Mix, in the employ-of the Nevada State Journal, handed him a knife. It was a pocket knife “without handles on, a long blade, I might say the blade was about three inches at least, and this *33 blade was wired open.” There were blood stains on the blade. After handing this knife to the officer, Mr. Mix took him to the toilet of the Wine House and- there showed him a garbage can in which there was what appeared to the officer to be a broken bottle and a little water.

. Officer Geach further testified that on the second day after the trouble, he inspected the cabin in which defendant had been living, and there found some wire; on the next day he also found there a pair of cheap pliers. The pliers, the wire, both knives, and the stained paper were admitted in evidence at the trial.

Mr. Geach further testified that on the day of the trouble, after defendant’s arrest, in the office of the chief of police, defendant stated that there had. been bad blood between him and Zoebel for eight years; that he had been attacked by Mr. Zoebel; and that upon one occasion Mr. Zoebel had caused his arrest. On May 12, and again on May 15, defendant stated that at the time of the trouble on the morning of May 12, Zoebel attacked him with a ramal.

Officer Geach testified that on May 15 defendant denied ownership of the knife which had been handed the officer by Mr. Mix; also that defendant said he had gone in the front door of the Wine House and out the back door on the morning of the trouble, but that this was before the altercation.

With reference to the wire found in defendant’s premises, Mr. Geach testified on cross-examination that he would say it was the kind commonly used by electricians and for various purposes, but he was not in a position to qualify; that it had been his observation that this kind of wire was commonly used and generally on the market, and often used in the city of Reno. Also on cross-examination he admitted that he was not to be understood as testifying, positively that the stains on the larger knife were blood. Defendant from the first, says Mr. Geach, consistently maintained that he was *34 justified in stabbing Zoebel. This officer estimated that Zoebel was about 5 feet 10 inches tall, and weighed from 140 to 150 pounds.

Charles Warren Mix, the man who handed Officer Geach the knife with which the state claims Zoebel was stabbed, did not appear as a witness at the trial, but' his deposition taken at the preliminary examination was admitted in evidence over defendant’s objections, which will be considered later in this opinion. The substance of Mr. Mix’s testimony follows: On the morning of the trouble, he had occasion to go to the men’s toilet in the rear of the Wine House adjoining Douglas alley. He noticed a knife in the- garbage can where there was about half an inch of water. He had previously heard that somebody had been stabbed. He picked up the knife and when he saw the officers, handed the knife to Officer Geach. He identified the larger knife with the longer blade as the one he handed the officer. It was wrapped with wire when he found it just as it was when he examined it in court. It had a stain on the blade. He could not exactly say whether it was blood or not.

Ed Walters, occupation building trades, who had lived in Reno about ten years, testified that on the morning of the trouble, while in the front entrance of the Palace Club, he noticed defendant and Zoebel scuffling on the sidewalk on Center street about half way between Douglas alley and Commercial row. Zoebel was bleeding very badly and was following defendant, who was coming towards witness. As they came nearer, Zoebel staggered and fell on the sidewalk.

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Related

State v. Gambetta
208 P.2d 1059 (Nevada Supreme Court, 1949)

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Bluebook (online)
68 P.2d 569, 58 Nev. 28, 1937 Nev. LEXIS 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hill-v-state-nev-1937.