Opinion ID: 2603544
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: House Homicide

Text: On March 17, 1979, George House, a 52-year-old pensioner, spent the afternoon and evening drinking beer and playing shuffleboard at Patti's Bar in Pasadena. By 8 p.m. he had spent all his money and become inebriated. Mildred Rhodes, who lived with House and had been at the bar with him, gave him $3 to take a cab home and helped him into the cab. Ron Chan, a cab driver, said he picked up a man resembling House about 8:30 p.m. on March 17, 1979, in front of Patti's Bar in Pasadena. The man gave him $3 when he dropped him off in front of Boy's Market on Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena. He appeared very drunk and staggered as he walked up the street. House was shot and killed as he was walking up Claremont Street near its intersection with Progress Lane. His body was found lying in a driveway a few doors from his house on Claremont. He had been shot three times, once in the eye and twice in the back. His keys and cigarettes were near the body; his wallet was found about 200 yards away on the grounds of Kings' Manor Housing Project. Some of his identification cards were scattered on the other side of the street diagonally across from where he fell. No usable fingerprints were found on the cards or the wallet. Two percipient witnesses linked appellant to the homicide: Arthur Spencer and Kathy Hall, residents of Kings' Manor Housing Project, who knew appellant. Spencer had been visiting his sister that evening. While walking home from her apartment, he saw appellant talking to House on the other side of the street. He recognized House as a person who lived in the neighborhood. As appellant and House were talking, Spencer saw House make a motion toward his pants pocket and pull his pocket out. [3] Appellant held a gun, which was pointed at the ground. He raised the gun, pointed it at House's head and fired once. Spencer saw House fall to the ground. At that point Spencer turned and started running back to his sister's apartment. As he started running, he heard but did not see, two more shots being fired. Spencer slowed down, looked back, and saw appellant running away. At the time of the shooting Spencer could see appellant's face clearly. He was about 35 to 40 feet away. Spencer did not recall seeing anyone else nearby. Spencer had been selling Valium regularly to appellant and had last seen him two nights before when he had sold him some. Spencer admitted he was a regular user of drugs and alcohol. On the day of the House murder he thought he had taken one or two Valiums. He had drunk beer earlier in the day and had possibly smoked marijuana. On the evening House was killed, Kathy Hall was in the circle where Claremont deadends at Kings' Manor Project. About 10 to 20 other people were there, sitting and talking. Among them were Donnie Gray, Rickie Rivers and appellant. Appellant told Donnie Gray and Rickie Rivers that he had a gun and was going to make some money. He patted his waist when he referred to his piece. Hall saw House walk by on Claremont while she was sitting on a wall on the other side of Claremont about halfway between the deadend and the intersection with Progress Lane. About 45 minutes later, while she was still sitting on the wall, she heard two or three shots. She looked down the street and saw appellant standing over a body and Rickie Rivers and Donnie Gray standing across the street on Progress Lane. She and several other people started running toward appellant. Donnie and Rickie ran south, but Hall did not see where appellant went. Later that evening Hall ran into appellant, Donnie and Rickie at the jungle gym and began talking with them. Appellant was holding a gun. He asked her to go back to the scene of the shooting and find out what the police were saying. She refused, but later agreed when she was asked to do so by her cousin, Donnie. She went back to Claremont, watched the police for about 30 minutes and then reported to appellant, Donnie and Rickie that the police did not know anything. Hall admitted that she delayed telling the police what she knew. When first questioned, she denied any knowledge because she did not want to get involved. She changed her mind, however, after  at appellant's instigation  she was shot four or five months later by Sherry Ann Sanford. Hall and appellant had fought before. On this occasion appellant, who was standing right next to Sherry Ann, said: Shoot the bitch. Shoot her now. Sherry Ann obeyed and shot Hall in the chest and arm. Hall admitted that many of the things she had first told the police  such as that she had actually seen appellant shoot House  were untrue. She had said these things because she was mad at appellant. Sometime before trial, while appellant and Hall were on a bus together coming from the county jail, he asked her why she was going to testify against him. Hall replied that she thought he knew why. Appellant said she knew that he wasn't killing nothing but white people so why would ... [she] snitch on him.