People v. Ottey

56 P.2d 193, 5 Cal. 2d 714, 1936 Cal. LEXIS 457
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 31, 1936
DocketCrim. 3866
StatusPublished
Cited by106 cases

This text of 56 P.2d 193 (People v. Ottey) 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. Ottey, 56 P.2d 193, 5 Cal. 2d 714, 1936 Cal. LEXIS 457 (Cal. 1936).

Opinion

SHENK, J.

The defendant was charged by information with the murder of his wife, Oreane Ottey, committed on *718 October 31,1934, in Monterey County. He pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. A jury found him guilty of murder of the first degree without recommendation. On the issue raised by the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, the defendant was found to have been sane. From the judgment imposing the death penalty and from the order denying his motion for a new trial, the defendant has appealed.

The defendant urges, as grounds for reversal, insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the degree of the crime found by the jury, alleged errors committed by the court in the conduct of the trial and in its comments on the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses, and error in the denial of the motion for a new trial.

The defendant and the decedent had been married for about three years and lived in Monterey. In accordance with his wife’s desire the defendant had procured his discharge from the United States army, and the parties lived in the home then being acquired by the defendant under a contract of purchase. Previous to his discharge from the army the defendant, who had received medals for expert marksmanship in gun practice, had been assigned to duty as a military police in Monterey. At the time of and before the homicide he had been working as a deputy for the sheriff or the constable in Monterey County. In connection with his duties he was permitted to carry firearms. Some time prior to October, 1934, because of the defendant’s lack of employment, he and his wife moved out of the defendant’s house and rented it, and occupied cheaper quarters. The wife continued as an office employee in Woolworth’s store in Monterey. In 1933 the parties disagreed and separated, but were subsequently reconciled and lived together in a rented apartment until the first part of October, 1934, when another separation occurred. The defendant testified that after a week or so they again became reconciled, agreed to return to each other, and that the only difference then between them was the defendant’s desire to give the tenants in his house notice to move so that they could reoccupy it, and the wife’s preference to live downtown in an apartment.

October 31, 1934, was the defendant’s birthday. He testified that he telephoned his wife at Woolworth’s and asked her to dine with him and spend the evening together. She indi *719 cated that she had other arrangements for the evening but made a luncheon engagement with him. About 12 o’clock that morning the defendant went to the office at Woolworth’s and talked with the decedent. A witness saw the defendant go down on his knees to his wife and make a request accompanied by the words, “Please, Honey”, to which the Wife replied that they would not then discuss the matter. The defendant testified that his request was that she go back and live in his house. He then went out and waited in his automobile parked across the street until the decedent come out at 1 o’clock. She proceeded across the street and after a few minutes’ conversation, they walked to a Chinese restaurant a few blocks away which they, and especially the wife, had previously patronized. Witnesses who observed them testified that they both seemed in good spirits and in an amiable mood. They entered a booth in the restaurant. A few seconds later, while the waitress was carrying water to the booth, screams were heard and a cry “Help, help!” in a woman’s voice. The waitress backed into the kitchen and heard three shots fired. A fourth shot was heard when the waitress went to the cook in the yard back of the restaurant. The cook and the waitress then reentered the restaurant by the front door, when the waitress heard the defendant in the booth mutter, “Honey, I had to do this”. While a call was being put in for the police two more shots were fired in the booth. One witness saw the defendant put the gun to his own head after three shots were fired. The wife was carried out of the restaurant dead, with two bullet wounds in her head, which showed that the gun had been fired at a distance of about two inches, and a bullet wound through her wrist. When confronted by the police officers the defendant was covered with blood. He dropped his empty gun and asked, “Didn’t I do a good job of it?”, expressing a wish to die. He had a wound in his head and another through the palm of the left hand. Upon the approach of one of the officers the defendant stated, “I shot my wife and myself”, to which the officer replied, “I know you did. ’ ’

At the trial the defendant attempted to minimize the effect of the foregoing circumstances and declarations by testifying that his wife’s wounds were caused by the accidental discharge of the gun in his hands in the course of a struggle for its possession by her when the defendant made a threat *720 to kill himself. On the foregoing facts, however, the jury were amply justified in concluding that the wounds received by the wife were not the result of accidental discharge of the weapon, but that the homicide was premeditated and intentional, even though they also found that the intent was not formed until a few seconds before it culminated in the actual shooting. In addition, there was evidence of prior threats made by the defendant on the life of his wife and that she had a fear of living in his house with firearms in it and of conversing with him after a separation from him while he was armed. There was also testimony of prior admission by the defendant of previous mistreatment of his wife. From the nature of the wounds the jury might believe that there was an undirected discharge of one shot which passed through the decedent’s wrist while the defendant had hold of it with his left hand, but it is not conceivable that the jury could rationally conclude that the two wounds in her head, caused by shots fired at such close range, were anything less than the result of a deliberate intent to take her life. In such a clear case of justification in the evidence for the jury’s verdict of first degree murder we may not accede to the defendant’s request to exercise the discretion reposed in this court by section 1181 of the Penal Code and reduce the crime to one of lesser degree or of manslaughter as was done in the case of People v. Kelley, 208 Cal. 387 [281 Pac. 609], (People v. Adams, 199 Cal. 361 [249 Pac. 186]; People v. Murphy, 1 Cal. (2d) 37 [32 Pac. (2d) 635]; People v. Ramos, 3 Cal. (2d) 269 [44 Pac. (2d) 301].)

In view of the foregoing conclusion but little need be said in disposing of the defendant’s contentions that the court committed error which prejudiced the defendant in the conclusion which the jury might reach on the nature or degree of the homicide, or in the exercise of its discretion to return its verdict without recommendation.

Prejudicial error in a question asked by the court during its examination of the defendant is urged. The defendant took the stand in his own behalf and after direct and cross-examination by counsel the court asked the defendant questions designed to inquire into his reason for calling on his wife about an hour before he expected to have luncheon with her.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
56 P.2d 193, 5 Cal. 2d 714, 1936 Cal. LEXIS 457, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-ottey-cal-1936.