People v. Blalock
| Decision Date | 18 November 1965 |
| Docket Number | Cr. 3695 |
| Citation | 238 Cal.App.2d 209,47 Cal.Rptr. 604 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. James W. BLALOCK, Defendant and Appellant. |
L. Miles Snyder, Sacramento, for appellant.
Thomas C. Lynch, Atty. Gen., by Raymond M. Momboisse and Ronald W. Tochterman, Sacramento, for respondent.
An indictment charged James Blalock and Melvin Eddings with robbing and murdering William Kiser on February 1, 1964. The same indictment charged Blalock alone with robbing Richard Kern on January 27, 1964. The jury found Blaclock guilty of first degree murder and both robberies and acquitted Eddings of the two charges against him. Sentenced to life imprisonment, Blalock appeals.
Kiser's body, face down, was found in a lumber yard near Broadway and Front Streets in Sacramento on Sunday morning, February 2. The body was nude. Kiser's clothes were piled in a loose bundle near the body and his other belongings were strewn about, including a wristwatch (which was still running) and automobile keys. A 5-foot length of 2 X 4 lumber, broken in two pieces, was lying a few feet from the body. One of the pieces was blood-stained. Death had resulted from skull fractures with extensive brain damage. He had been struck three times with a blunt instrument, probably while he was lying in a horizontal position. Blows from the 2 X 4 lumber could have caused the injuries. Kiser had lived for approximately 30 minutes after the blows were struck. Various estimates place the time of death at some time between 9:30 p.m. the preceding night and 4 a.m. that morning. Blood tests indicated ingestion of alcohol prior to death.
Kiser usually wore an onyx ring with an Old English initial K. The ring was missing. The automobile keys near the body were found to fit a green Chevrolet which Kiser had been driving the preceding night. The car was found parked near the Los Amigos bar at 7th and Q Streets. Kiser's empty wallet and papers were found strewn on the street several blocks away. Although he had cashed a check for $25 on Saturday evening, there was no money in the wallet.
Detective Stanley of the Sacramento Police Department heard that Melvin Eddings, age 18, had been seen in the Los Amigos bar on Saturday night. Stanley interviewed Eddings on Monday, February 3, and Tuesday, February 4. Eddings identified Kiser's picture as that of a man with whom he had talked at the bar Saturday night. He did not give the police any other usable information during those two interviews.
One Joe Bold read newspaper accounts of the body's discovery. These included a description of Kiser's missing ring. On that very Saturday night Bold had come into possession of a ring answering that description, and its previous possessor had been his brother-in-law, James Blalock. Becoming worried, he asked Blalock where he had got the ring. Blalock told him several different stories. He said that he had received the ring from a man who rode with him to a bar called Polo's; that he took it from a person he had met a long time ago; that he had slapped somebody on the side of the head and had taken the ring. Bold's worries persisted and he persuaded Blalock to go with him to see a Catholic priest. Late Tuesday night, February 4, Bold, his wife and Blalock went to the priest. At about 12:30 a.m. several police officers came to the church rectory and conversed with Bold and the priest, while Blalock stayed in the waiting room. 1 The police requested Bold and Blalock to come to the police station with them. Mr. and Mrs. Bold rode in one police car, Blalock in another. The police did not question Blalock at the rectory or en route to the police station.
At the station there was a series of interrogations throughout the night. First Officer Viegas interviewed Blalock in one interrogation room, while Officers Stanley and Guerrero questioned Bold in another room. Viegas then left Blalock waiting alone for approximately a half hour, then, about 1:30 a.m., returned with Officer Stanley for further questioning. Blalock was informed of some of Bold's statements, but the extent of that information cannot be ascertained from the record. Then Blalock, left alone for several hours, slept on some chairs. About 4 o'clock a.m. a deputy district attorney arrived at the police station and took a recorded statement from Bold. Bold's statement implicated Eddings.
Officer Stanley went to Eddings' home early Wednesday morning. Eddings was not there and Stanley left a message that he was to come to the police station. In the meantime the deputy district attorney held a recorded interview with Blalock. This interview lasted about an hour, concluding at approximately 7:30 a.m. Eddings arrived at the station about an hour later. Eddings then participated in a recorded interview with the deputy district attorney. During the course of the interview, Bold was brought into the room and identified Eddings as a man who had driven with him and Blalock from the Los Amigos bar to Polo's bar on Saturday night. Bold was then permitted to go home. Blalock and Eddings were placed in formal custody about noon that day.
Bold's first discussion with the police at the rectory took place in Blalock's absence. Bold and Blalock were kept apart during the remainder of the night during the next mornings. Eddings and Bold were together only briefly, when Bold was brought in to identify him. At no time during the interrogations was Blalock or Eddings informed that he had a right to legal counsel or a right to remain silent.
The trial occupied more than 30 trial days and more than 2,500 pages of transcript. Police officers, investigators, criminologists and others were called to establish the fact of Kiser's death by criminal means. The evidence designed to pin the death on Blalock was of much smaller extent, consisting primarily of Joe Bold's testimony, Blalock's extrajudicial statement and Kiser's initial ring, with small assists from the testimony of Mrs. Kiser and a bartender.
Bold was called as a prosecution witness. He testified that he and Blalock had arrived at the Los Amigos bar in Blalock's car somewhere about 8:45 p.m. on Saturday evening, February 1. Blalock stopped to talk to someone in the bar area, while Bold went to the rear of the premises to watch a card game. Blalock joined him about five minutes later, told him he knew where he could get $400 and asked Bold if he wanted 'in.' Bold asked, 'In what?' Blalock did not reply and returned to the bar area. Later Blalock returned, gave Bold the car keys and told him that if he did not return, Bold could leave without him. About 15 minutes later, Blalock was back again, asked for his keys, then left. After about 15 minutes Blalock returned and asked Bold if he was ready to go. They left the Los Amigos bar about 9:30 p.m. Outside the bar Blalock motioned to one of three men standing on the corner to accompany them. This man was later identified as Melvin Eddings. Bold noticed that Blalock's car had been moved from its original parking place. The three entered the car, Blalock occupying the driver's seat, Bold sitting next to him and the man later identified as Eddings seated in the back. They drove toward Polo's bar, located in another part of the city. En route Blalock's driving became erratic, apparently because of intoxication. Bold had him stop and took over the wheel. During the course of the journey the man in the back seat of the car asked 'Why does as individual rip the clothes off a guy?' Blalock replied,
Continuing his testimony, Bold related that on arriving at Polo's they got out of the car. As they were crossing the street Blalock put his hand into his pocket, brought out an object and tossed it away. Bold picked it up. It was the ring which Bold later turned over to the officers. The third man did not enter Polo's bar with them. Bold and Blalock went into Polo's together.
Blalock's recorded extrajudicial statement was read to the jury after voir dire testimony to establish its voluntariness and after the court had instructed the jury that the statement was not to be considered relative to Eddings. Blalock said that he had met a Negro man about 25 years old at the Los Amigos on Saturday night. The man had a baby face and 'processed' (i. e., straightened) hair, which hung over his face and a 'real keen little nose.' Blalock had also seen a red-headed Negro woman at the bar who was talking to a sandy-haired white man, wearing a red shirt, black pants and a fatigue jacket. 2 The woman came over to the 25-year-old Negro and whispered that the white man had a lot of money on him, about $400, and that they were going to take the money. The Negro man then asked Blalock if he had an automobile. Blalock then went to Bold to see what he thought of the idea of taking money from the white man, but Bold wanted nothing to do with it. Blalock left Bold and returned to the bar, where the same Negro man suggested that they get narcotics. Blalock did not want any, but took a walk with the man to a house several blocks away, where the man talked to someone at the door. They then walked back to Los Amigos and stood outside in front of the bar. The man gave Blalock the ring (which later turned out to have been taken from the murdered man). The man said the ring was too big for him. Blalock got Bold and they drove over to Polo's with the man who had given Blalock the ring. En route to Polo's they had a conversation about getting money and the man said, 'If you catch a man, take--if you don't knock him out, take his clothes and he can't run and call the police.'
Mrs. Kiser had last seen her husband earlier the evening of February 1. He was then wearing his...
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