People v. Mitchell

93 P.2d 121, 14 Cal. 2d 237, 1939 Cal. LEXIS 330
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 22, 1939
DocketCrim. 4221
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 93 P.2d 121 (People v. Mitchell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Mitchell, 93 P.2d 121, 14 Cal. 2d 237, 1939 Cal. LEXIS 330 (Cal. 1939).

Opinions

CURTIS, J.

This appeal is from the judgment and order of the trial court denying defendant’s motion for a new trial.

The defendant, Willie B. Mitchell, met Fannie Nolden some time in 1936 at a night club in the city of Sacramento. Later they met again in the early part of the following year. Thereafter they met frequently and soon began living together as man and wife although they were never married. They both belonged to the colored race. He was less than seventeen years of age and she was twenty-five. In the summer of 1937 they moved to Oakland and took up their residence at Ninth and Center Streets in that city. Their life together was not at all times harmonious, and according to the testi[239]*239mony of the defendant, Fannie Nolden “ran off” on a number of occasions. Some few days prior to November 21, 1937, Fannie Nolden left the home at Ninth and Center Streets, and went to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Upshaw at 1115 Center Street, two blocks from Ninth and Center Streets. Mr. and Mrs. Upshaw were the uncle and aunt respectively of the defendant. On November 21, 1937, the defendant called two or three times at the home of his uncle and aunt, and at least on one of his earlier visits during that day he saw Fannie Nolden, but nothing of any moment took place between them at that time. He returned to the Upshaw home about 7 o’clock of the same day with an acquaintance by the name of Leonard Franklin. It was just getting dark. He had two pistols on his person, and Leonard Franklin had one. On entering the Upshaw home on that evening, he met and talked with his uncle and aunt in their living or “front” room. He then asked his aunt if he could have some food. She replied, “Sure, go down in the kitchen, help yourself.” He and Franklin then went to the kitchen. When they entered they found Fannie Nolden and Dorothy Robinson, the latter a young lady cousin of the defendant. Fannie Nolden was washing dishes and Dorothy Robinson was seated at a table eating a meal. When defendant first entered the kitchen, he asked Fannie Nolden to fix him something to eat. Fannie replied, “I don’t have anything to fix. This ain’t my house.” Defendant then said, “You ain’t going to fix it?” He then reached down in his waist under his coat, and pulled out two “guns”. Fannie then said, “Oh, yes, I fix it. Yes, I fix it,” and ran across the room near the water tank. The defendant then stepped around and started shooting, and Fannie fell to her knees, and the defendant stepped out a few feet further and started shooting again. Immediately after the shooting, the defendant put both pistols in his left hand and opened the back door and left the room. According to his own story, he left Oakland and went to San Francisco. From there he went to Los Angeles and eventually reached his old home in Arkansas. He remained in Arkansas for some months. Later he went to St. Louis, where he was arrested, charged with the crime of murder, and brought back to Oakland. The body of Fannie Nolden was examined by Dr. Mainwaring at 7:50 o’clock on the evening [240]*240of her death. He found one bullet lying loose in her undergarments over the chest. An autopsy was performed on the body of the deceased on the following day by Dr. Hamlin. He testified that he found six bullet wounds on her body, but he discovered no marks other than the bullet wounds on her body. One bullet entered the tip of the left shoulder and passed out under the left shoulder. Another bullet entered the inner angle of the armpit, and passed into the chest cavity at the third rib, passed through the left lung, through the left ventricle of the heart, through the right lung, and lodged four inches below the armpit. This bullet was recovered. The courses of other bullet wounds were described by the doctor, six in number. Two bullets were removed from the body during the autopsy. The wounds found upon the body of the deceased were pronounced fatal by the doctor and were the cause of her death. Besides the two bullets recovered from the body and the one found in the clothing of the deceased, a fourth was found embedded in the woodwork of the kitchen, just back of where the deceased fell when she was shot. No one seemed to know just how many shots were fired. Dorothy Robinson, who was the only eye-witness to the shooting, said she was unable to tell the number of shots that were fired by the defendant. Leonard Franklin who entered the kitchen with the defendant was not called as a witness. He was not seen after the shooting by any witness who testified in the case, and neither the prosecution nor the defendant had been able to locate him before the trial. The defendant testified that he did know the number of shots that were fired. He never denied the shooting. He admitted his guilt to the arresting officers in St. Louis, and at that time made a written statement giving his version of the shooting. He also took the stand as a witness at his trial and admitted that he shot the deceased. His version of the shooting does not entirely agree with that given by Dorothy Robinson, and will be discussed later. No claim is made by the appellant that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict of the jury finding him guilty of the crime of murder as charged in the information. The only ground assigned by him for a reversal of the judgment is that the court erred in refusing to give an instruction on manslaughter. He predicates his right to such an instruction upon his testimony given at the trial of the the case. He testified that when he entered the kitchen .of [241]*241the Upshaw house on the evening of the shooting, he said to Fannie Nolden: “Hello, Toots,” and touched her on the back and said, “How about fixing me something to eat?”; that she looked at him and said, “I don’t have nothing to eat here, I can’t fix you anything;” that she then walked to the sink, and he went to the door and called, “Auntie, can I have some food?”; that he turned and came back while Fannie Nolden was still at the sink and said, “What’s wrong?”, and she replied, “I don't have time to talk to you”; that he then said, “How about some of my money then?”, and she replied, “I ain’t got time to fool with you. I am busy,” and that he then said, “Leaving all jokes aside, Fannie, let me have some of my money; ’ ’ that at that time she was in front of the cupboard and wheeled around with a knife in her hand and said, “I’ll give it to you. I’ll fix you!” that he then jumped back to the door and said, “Don’t come over here,” but she kept coming. ‘ ‘ I could not get out the door. I come up and knocked the automatic safety off, just went off like that., and it stopped. When the automatic stopped shooting, Fannie laid one hand on the stove and looked at me and gritted her teeth, and I was trying to get the door open from the back with this hand, back with this hand. When I went to move around the automatic went off one more time. ’ ’

Appellant prepared an instruction defining manslaughter in the language of section 192 of the Penal Code with the added statement, “If you are satisfied beyond and to the exclusion of a reasonable doubt that the defendant unlawfully killed Fannie Nolden without malice and upon a sudden quarrel, or in the heat of passion, your verdict should be guilty of manslaughter.” This proposed instruction the court refused to give. We think it was properly refused. Nothing in appellant’s testimony indicated in the slightest extent that appellant killed the deceased either upon a sudden quarrel or in the heat of passion. At most his testimony tended to show that he drew his automatic pistol in self-defense, by an inadvertence he knocked off the safety appliance, and the gun was accidentally discharged.

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People v. Mitchell
93 P.2d 121 (California Supreme Court, 1939)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
93 P.2d 121, 14 Cal. 2d 237, 1939 Cal. LEXIS 330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-mitchell-cal-1939.