Court Opinion

ID: 9605988
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:44:52.359566+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:34.868607
License: Public Domain

SHENK, J.
The defendant was charged by information with the murder of Charles Wayne Dyer on January 13, 1948, in Los Angeles County. He pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity, but withdrew the insanity plea after the trial on the other plea. The jury returned a verdict of guilty without recommendation. The appeal is from the judgment and from an order denying a motion for a new trial.
On January 1, 1948, the defendant became a roomer in a small hotel in Pasadena. He was 22 years of age and his home was in Michigan. On January 3d Dyer took a room adjoining the defendant’s room in the same hotel. Dyer was 30 years of age and unmarried. His home was in Missouri and he had recently been separated from the air corps service. About January 5th the hotel manager introduced the young men to each other, and on January 7th at his suggestion they gave up their separate single room and for reasons of economy moved into a twin-bedded room which was on the third floor. The defendant and Dyer became friendly and went around together, often in Dyer’s car which he kept at a parking lot near the hotel.
About 11 o’clock on the morning of Monday, January 12th, the defendant asked the manager for pliers and a hammer, saying he wished to pull a nail out of his shoe. He was given pliers and a round-headed hammer which he took to the room. The same evening Dyer and the hotel manager went together to the wrestling matches. They returned to the hotel at 12:20 a. m. of the 13th. About 9 o’clock that morning the manager went to the defendant’s room for his tools. He saw the defendant placing the carpet-sweeper in the hall outside the room door. Without letting the manager into the room the defendant went in, brought out the tools, and said that since he had already swept, made the beds, and cleaned the room, it would not be necessary for anyone else to do so.
On the evening of the 13th at 6 o’clock, the defendant took the manager to dinner. At that time he paid his room rent, having previously been in arrears because of lack of funds. The hotelman asked where Dyer was and the defendant said he had gone to San Jose, Santa Cruz, “or somewhere.” They *482parted outside the hotel entrance. Later that evening tenants below the defendant’s room reported something dripping from the floor above. An inspection of the defendant’s room disclosed Dyer’s corpse wrapped in a blanket lying in a pool of blood under one of the beds. Lacerations about the head and at the base of the skull indicated the use of a round-headed instrument in the striking of seven or more blows which were the cause of death. Deceased’s bloodstained clothing and broken blood-spattered eyeglasses, and a bloodstained blanket were found in a suitcase.
The defendant was arrested about 4 o’clock on the morning of the 14th as he was returning to the hotel. He denied knowledge of the homicide until an officer called attention to a stain on his trousers. He then admitted that he killed Dyer and said he would tell all about it.
The defendant’s statement concerning the details of the homicide and his ensuing activities to the time of his arrest was reduced to writing, signed by him and initialed on each page. It was introduced in evidence over objection as to the portion stating what he did after the homicide. Testimony of independent witnesses as to the activities of the defendant during the day of January 13th was also admitted over objection. The defendant’s statement and testimony are to the following effect:
On Tuesday morning January 13th the defendant went to breakfast and returned to the room about 8 :30. He undressed and lay down because he felt tired. Dyer was still in bed and asleep. The defendant fell asleep but in about 10 minutes Dyer came over to his bed, pulled down the covers, and offered “an act of sodomy,” which he rejected saying he didn’t “go for that damn stuff,” he was “not that way,” and “nobody was going to change” him. He got up and procured the hammer from the dresser drawer, saying that if Dyer didn’t let him alone he would kill him. Dyer kept on coming, whereupon he hit him the first time. Dyer fell between the beds. Defendant dressed and started to leave the room, but saw Dyer trying to lift himself up at the bedpost and calling for help. He hit him again, placed him on a pillow and blankets, tried to stop the bleeding but failed, and thought the best thing was to put him out of his misery. He hit him again two or three times and when he saw there was nothing he could do to save him, that his hands were getting cold and his feet white, he wrapped a blanket around him and placed him under the bed. He put the bloodstained blanket, Dyer’s *483stained clothes and eyeglasses in a suitcase. He cleaned the room, washed the hammer (which tests showed still had blood on it), and gave it and the pliers to the hotel manager. He then took Dyer’s keys and wallet, drove Dyer’s car to Los Angeles and sold it for $1,350. He conducted the transaction in Dyer’s name, signed Dyer’s name on the title papers, endorsed Dyer’s name on the purchase money cheek, took traveler’s checks for the amount in Dyer’s name, used them in making substantial purchases including jewelry for a friend named David Burnham on the latter’s birthday. He had previously told Burnham, who had never known the defendant to have more than $50, that he was expecting an inheritance. The defendant also offered to pay the balance of a $300 loan incurred by Burnham. The defendant returned to Pasadena in a taxicab, and after dinner with the hotel manager proceeded to a night club in Los Angeles where he remained until 3:30 a. m. “to think over the best thing to do.” He then went back to the hotel for the alleged purpose of surrendering himself, and on his arrival was met by the arresting officers.
It was also in evidence that in addition to the body and the suitcase of bloodstained articles, the officers found newly-purchased clothing and about $700 of the traveler’s checks in the defendant’s room.
Over the defendant’s objection the court permitted in evidence the portion of the defendant’s statement which included the history of his homosexual relations with David Burnham, a practice which he acquired in 1944 when in the armed service acting as a chauffeur.
The ground of the defendant’s objection to the admission of evidence concerning his acts subsequent to the homicide was that they concerned independent crimes for which he was not on trial and were for that reason inadmissible. His objection to the introduction of the statement of his homosexual practices was based on the contention that such evidence tended to degrade him before the jury and was used merely to create an atmosphere of prejudice. The objections were extensively argued and the evidence was permitted only after specific instructions to the jury limiting the purpose thereof.
Unquestionably evidence of other crimes and degrading practices unrelated to any issue on the trial is inadmissible. Proof of bad character has never been allowed as a step in *484the proof of guilt on a particular charge. But it is well settled that where such proof is relevant to an issue in the case it is admissible although it also tends to show immoral conduct or the commission of other crimes. “If the evidence of another crime is necessary or pertinent to the proof of the one charged, the law will not thwart justice by excluding that evidence, simply because it involves the commission of another crime.” (People v. Sanders, 114 Cal. 216, 230 [46 P. 153].) The reasons for the approved doctrine and the many cases in support thereof are fully set forth in People v. Peete, 28 Cal.2d 306, at page 314 et seq. [169 P.2d 924], (See, also, People v. McMonigle, 29 Cal.2d 730, 742 [177 P.2d 745].)
As in People v. Watts, 198 Cal. 776 [247 P. 884], so here, the conduct of the defendant in taking the property of and posing as the deceased was relevant and admissible to show robbery as the motive for the crime.  And the defendant’s statement of the history of his knowledge and practice of sex perversion since 1944 was relevant and admissible to rebut his asserted defense of sex advances upon him by Dyer. The truth or falsity of the defendant’s assertions was for the determination of the jury and was resolved against him in the light of his contradictory statements and of the independent evidence.
Thus it becomes clear that the contention that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict of first degree murder is without merit. In this connection the defendant asserts that the record shows no premeditation, that he defended himself from the claimed advances of Dyer, and that robbery was but an afterthought. All of these contentions are answered by the evidence which was sufficient upon which to find that the defendant was the perpetrator of a premeditated killing of Dyer. Furthermore the undisputed facts support the conclusion that there was no provocation for the attack upon the deceased and that the defendant formed an intent to take Dyer’s life with robbery as the motive. The jury was correctly instructed as to the limited purpose of the evidence objected to by the defendant. No other instruction is questioned or criticized and the defendant had a full and fair trial.
The judgment and the order denying the motion for a new trial are affirmed.
Gibson, C, J., Edmonds, J., and Spence, J., concurred.