State v. Kukis

237 P. 476, 65 Utah 362
Utah Supreme Court·Decided April 6, 1925·No. No. 4240.·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

STRAUP, J.

The appellant, Pete Kukis, in the Seventh judicial district in. and for the county of Carbon was charged with having committed murder in the first degree, the killing of A. P. Webb, on the 14th day of June, 1922. On December 6, 1922, he was convicted of murder in the second degree, and was sentenced to life imprisonment, from which judgment he has prosecuted this appeal.

*365 The principal assigned errors are: Insufficiency of tbe evidence to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense; the refusal of the' court to grant the defendant a change of venue from the county in which the alleged offense was committed; and exceptions to portions of the charge and the refusal of' the court to give certain requests of the defendant.

In Carbon county a number of coal mines were being operated by different coal companies and a large number of coal miners employed, chiefly foreigners including many Greeks. There are various settlements or coal camps at or near the mining operations, including those of New Helper townsite and Standardville. In April, 1922, a general strike of coal miners were declared in about all of the coal mines in the county. The miners who chiefly responded to the strike and quit work were Greeks and other foreigners, many of whom were members of a miners’ union. The appellant, a Greek, was one of the strikers. The strike resulted in disorders, disturbances, and interferences usually incident to strikes of such magnitude, growing out of the desire and attempt of the employer to operate his property and carry on his business and efforts of the strikers by coercion, intimidation, and interference to prevent his so doing. Many of the strikers who had been occupying houses and properties of the different coal companies and who quit and refused to work were compelled to vacate such premises. Many of such strikers put up or lived in tents on lands other than those owned or occupied by the coal companies. Among other places there was such a tent colony composed principally of Greek strikers occupying about 70 tents a short distance from New Helper townsite just northerly and westerly of Helper. A short distance north of that is the town of Castle Gate on the main line of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company. From Castle Gate a short line of railroad known as the Utah Railway runs in a southwesterly direction, one branch to Standardville in a more westerly direction and one to Hiawatha in a more southerly direction. Standardville is but a short distance westerly from *366 New Helper townsite, The country is mountainous, and covered with rock, cedars, and brush. Among other canyons is the one called Spring Canyon, running from near New Helper townsite up the mountains towards Standardville and other places. A wagon road or highway extends along the canyon from New Helper townsite to Standardville. The first railroad station of the Utah Railway after leaving Castle Gate is Martin. A short distance from Martin the railroad runs through a tunnel about 800 feet long, entering Spring Canyon proper, and then runs more westerly towards Standardville along the side of the mountain .for a distance of 1,000 or 1,100 feet, where the track enters a cut and continues on westward toward Standardville. The railroad track, as it emerges from the tunnel, is constructed on a raise about 40 or 50 feet above the wagon road, and runs substantially parallel with it. Near where the track emerges from the tunnel and for some distance westerly the highway is about 100 feet south of the railroad track. To the north of the track and to the south of it between the track and the highway are rock, cedars and brush. Adjoining the highway on the south was an orchard, an alfalfa field with growing alfalfa about knee-high, ditches, and fences; to the south of that Spring Canyon creek.

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State v. Kukis, 237 P. 476, 65 Utah 362 (Utah 1925).

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