People v. Craig

Citations

• 111 Cal. 460
• 44 P. 186
• 1896 Cal. LEXIS 607

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Homicide— Murder of Wife — Evidence—Ill-will— Threats against Wife’s Family—Question for Jury. — Upon the trial of a defendant accused of the murder of his wife, evidence of his threats against the wife’s family are admissible as tending to show that he was actuated by ill-will in the killing of his wife, and the indefiniteness of the threats is not a sufficient reason for excluding the testimony, the threats being broad enough toinelude the wife with the other members of her family, and it is for the jury to determine whether she was in fact one of the persons intended by the defendant.</p> <p>Id.—Subsequent Murder of Wife’s Parents. —Evidence of the subsequent deliberate murder of his wife’s parents by the defendant without any word of warning, shortly after the killing of the wife by him, is admissible to show that the killing of the wife and her parents was part o£ one common plan, and being relevant to establish the motive of the crime of which defendant is on.trial, is not rendered irrelevant by the fact that it could be used to establish another and different crime.</p> <p>Id.—Competency of Child as Witness—Determination of Judge Conclusive—Discrepancy of Testimony.—The determination of the judge that a boy under ten years of age is competent as a witness, after examination upon objection raised to his competency, is not subject to review, and the fact that the testimony of the child differed from that of other witnesses is not prima Jade evidence of his incompetency.</p> <p>Id.— Shooting With Intent to Murder—Killing of Another — Instructions— Degree of Crime.—An instruction to the jury that if the defendant shot at his wife’s brother with intent to murder him, and killed his wife instead, such killing -is murder, is not erroneous in not stating the degree of murder of which he would be guilty, where the court elsewhere instructed the jury concerning the different degrees of murder.</p>