State v. Webster

Citations

• 21 Wash. 63
• 57 P. 361
• 1899 Wash. LEXIS 241

Syllabus

<p>EVIDENCE-ACTS AND DECLARATIONS AS PART OF RES GESTAE.</p> <p>A conversation between deceased, her husband, and one accused of her murder, prior to the homicide, is admissible in evidence as a part of the res gestae, where from the time defendant entered the house of the deceased until the homicide occurred there was a regular sequence to explain his intentions.</p> <p>SAME — DECLARATION S OP DECEASED AS RES GESTAE.</p> <p>A conversation between a husband and his wife immediately after she received the fatal shot, in which she stated that she was shot fatally, and by whom the shot was fired, and implored her husband to take the children upstairs or they would all be killed, as the accused would shoot again, is admissible in evidence in a prosecution for her murder by the accused as a part of the res gestae.</p> <p>CONFESSIONS-WEIGHT OP, AS EVIDENCE-QUESTION FOB JURY.</p> <p>The weight of admissions of one accused of murder, made to the officers who had him in custody after his arrest, is for the determination of the jury, under Bal. Code, § 6942, in the absence of any evidence that such admissions were made under fear produced by threats.</p> <p>HOMICIDE-EVIDENCE-INTENT AND RESPONSIBILITY.</p> <p>Testimony that one accused of murder purchased saxeline and cantharides shortly before the homicide and learned from the druggist how much was a dose, that he had them with him at the time of the homicide and offered a dose to the deceased, purporting to take one himself, and testimony as to the effect of the use of cantharides, is material, in connection with defendant’s advances toward deceased and her daughter, in determining the question of deliberation and responsibility, in view of the suggested defense of insensibility, assumed to have occurred from the use of cantharides, or of whiskey, which he had been drinking.</p> <p>EXHIBITS ADMISSIBLE IN JURY ROOM.</p> <p>Exhibits properly introduced in evidence and explanatory of the evidence of witnesses may be taken to th