People v. Castro
| Decision Date | 16 July 1958 |
| Docket Number | Cr. 6076 |
| Citation | 327 P.2d 596,162 Cal.App.2d 177 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Ralph CASTRO, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Robert H. Green, Los Angeles, for appellant.
Edmund G. Brown, Atty. Gen., and Herschel T. Elkins, Deputy Atty. Gen., for respondent.
Defendant was accused of the crime of murder. It was also alleged in the information that defendant had been convicted of robbery. In a nonjury trial he was adjudged guilty of manslaughter. No determination was made as to the allegation of prior conviction. Defendant appeals from the judgment and the order denying his motion for a new trial.
Appellant asserts that the evidence was insufficient to support the judgment; and that the deputy district attorney was guilty of misconduct.
On March 8, 1957, about 11:30 p. m., the defendant and Raul Estrada, who were in a saloon in Los Angeles, engaged in an argument. Within a few minutes thereafter they were fighting outside, and at the rear of, the saloon. A patron of the saloon stopped the fight. Defendant and Estrada returned to the saloon, and about five minutes thereafter they began fighting inside the saloon. While they were fighting and wrestling they moved to the telephone booth. Defendant backed Estrada into the booth, and they continued wrestling in the booth. When Estrada tried to walk from the booth he fell and collapsed on the floor of the saloon. Defendant walked about half way to the outside door and then ran outside. Estrada died a few minutes after he fell. There were seven stab wounds on Estrada--one in the neck, just below the jaw; two in the left chest which penetrated the heart; another in the left chest; one in the abdomen; and two in the upper part of the left arm. The wounds were 'circular' and were one-eighth inch in diameter. The cause of his death was stab wounds in the chest with penetration of the heart.
A waitress, in the saloon, testified that an ice pick was kept in the back bar; the ice pick was in the back bar on the evening of March 8, 1957; she did not see the ice pick on the 'counter' that evening.
About 3:45 a. m. on March 9, a police officer knocked on the front door of defendant's residence and identified himself as a police officer. At that time another officer, who was near the rear door of the residence, flashed a light through the rear screen door, and he saw defendant inside the door with shoes in his hand. Then the defendant, who had started back into the main part of the house, said: Defendant was arrested at that time.
Officer Cutts testified that, in conversations with defendant on March 9 and 10, defendant said: that he had had a running dispute with Estrada about a year and a half--that defendant attended a hair-styling school and as a result of that Estrada had constantly needled him and referred to him as a 'queer,' and that Estrada had accused him of 'beating him [Estrada] out of $5.00'; that on March 8, when they were at the bar, Estrada began needling him about the $5.00, and they agreed to go outside and fight; while they were fighting in the rear patio, a patron of the bar, one Gaytan, came out and struck defendant and stopped the fight; they returned to the barroom, and about five minutes thereafter Estrada renewed the fight and jumped on defendant; the defendant had seen an ice pick on the counter, he and Estrada 'grappled' for the ice pick and it fell on the floor; then they 'went to the floor,' and defendant got the ice pick; at that time defendant was struck across his back with a 'cue stick'; when they came up from the floor, the defendant had the ice pick in his right hand; Gaytan struck defendant's right hand with the cue and ordered defendant to drop the ice pick; defendant recalled striking Estrada on the head with the handle of the ice pick 'but not with the blade'; they wrestled into the telephone booth, and Estrada's back was against the wall; defendant did not recall stabbing Estrada with the ice pick, but he (defendant) felt that if Estrada was stabbed he must have run into the ice pick; Estrada said, 'Okay.'; then defendant stepped back, and Estrada began to fall forward; Gaytan chased defendant from the barroom 'with the cue stick'; after leaving that place, defendant went in his automobile to a gasoline station where he smashed the ice pick handle, and 'broke the blade up,' with a hammer; he flushed the broken ice pick down the toilet; then he went home; after he was at home he went to the front door of the house three times because he was afraid that the police, or persons from the barroom, would come after him.
Defendant testified that, before the first fight, Estrada called him a 'queer,' and said things about defendant's wife, and said that defendant owed him money; after the first fight ...
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...presented a question of fact for the trial judge (People v. Duchon, 165 Cal.App.2d 690, 694, 332 P.2d 373; People v. Castro, 162 Cal.App.2d 177, 181, 327 P.2d 596), the evidence was conclusive that defendant was the aggressor, not the victim. After defendant took the suitcase and started to......
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Castro v. Klinger
...on August 7, 1957, sentenced him to a term of confinement. The judgment of conviction was affirmed on July 16, 1958. People v. Castro, 162 Cal.App.2d 177, 327 P.2d 596. Thereafter, on July 1, 1964, a petition for habeas corpus was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of California. The r......
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Castro v. Klinger
...that the question of a coerced confession was not raised by objection at trial nor was the claim pressed on appeal. See People v. Castro, 162 Cal.App.2d 177, 327 P.2d 596. Petitioner claims to have exhausted state remedies by virtue of filing two petitions for writ of habeas corpus in the S......
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