State v. Beebe

Citations

• 66 Wash. 463
• 120 P. 122
• 1912 Wash. LEXIS 789

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law — Evidence—Declarations of Codefendant. Upon a separate trial of one charged as an accessory to a 'homicide, confined to acts committed at the time and place of the killing, it is error to admit evidence of threats against the deceased and of declarations in the nature of confessions, made by the principal or codefendant both before and after the homicide at times when the accessory was not present.</p> <p>Homicide — Manslaughter—Definition—Evidence—Question for Jury. Under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 2395, defining manslaughter in broad terms as including all homicides other than those specified in Id., §§ 2392, 2393 and 2394, the court cannot determine the degree and decide, as a matter of law, that the defendant was necessarily guilty of one of the higher degrees, where it appears that defendant was having a dispute with the deceased over a fence, called his attention to the gun carried by defendant’s daughter who evidently heard the remark and who had made threats against the deceased; since defendant’s guilt did not depend entirely on the presence or absence of design on her part, the same being a question for the jury.</p>