People v. Leach
| Decision Date | 04 June 1895 |
| Parties | PEOPLE v. LEACH. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from court of oyer and terminer, New York county.
Richard Leach was convicted of murder in the first degree, and appeals. Affirmed.
Hugh O. Pentecost, for appellant.
John D. Lindsay, for respondent.
The defendant was charged in the indictment with having murdered one Mary H. Leach, whose real name was Mary Hope Newkirk, by cutting and stabbing her in the neck with a knife, on the 18th day of November, 1894. Being tried upon the indictment in the court of oyer and terminer held in and for the city and county of New York, he was found guilty by the verdict of a jury of the crime of murder in the first degree, and thereupon he was sentenced to be executed. From the judgment of conviction the defendant has appealed to this court.
There were no exceptions taken to the rulings of the court during the trial, and the only point which has been urged upon our attention by his counsel is an exception to that portion of the charge to the jury wherein the trial judge, as he says, marshaled the evidence against the defendant. A review of the evidence satisfies us that the verdict of the jury was well supported, and was the only one which fair and reasonable minds could reach. The defendant was a man of about 32 years of age at the time of the killing, and had been living with the deceased, in illicit relations, in an apartment at No. 412 West Forty-Ninth street in the city of New York. On the evening of November 17, 1894, they were in the rooms of some friends in the same building. A quarrel seems to have sprung up between them, because of some jealousy on her part, occasioned by his manner towards another woman who was present. In consequence they left, and returned to their own apartment. About 2 o'clock in the morning of November 18th the defendant walked into the station house of the Twenty-Second police precinct, only part dressed, and carrying his shoes in his hands. There was a cut on the left side of his neck, and more or less blood was upon his clothes and person. According to the testimony of the captain and sergeant of the police and of the doorman of the station house, the defendant stated to each that he had killed the deceased; first mentioning her as his wife, and then stating that he was not married to her. He told the captain where he would find the deceased. He said to the sergeant and to the doorman that he had sat by the said of the woman until she was dead. To the doorman he said that over an hour had passed since he had killed her, and, when asked with what he had cut himself and his wife, he produced from his pocket a knife, with an open and blood-stained blade. Upon going to the apartment of the defendant, the body of the deceased was found upon the bed, entirely naked, except that the lower part was covered by a bed coverlet. The body lay upon its right side, and upon the edge of the bed, and a handkerchief was clenched in the left hand. Upon the left side of her neck was a deep, long, and incised wound about 4 1/2 inches in length, ragged upon its edges, which commenced from behind the ear, and varied in depth; presenting the appearance of several wounds merged into one. The jugular vein had been severed by the cut, and death had been caused by the resulting hemorrhage. Blood covered the left side of the bed, pillow slips, bed cover, and much of the floor. There was no evidence of any struggle having taken place in the room. There were found a slate and a sheet of paper upon the table in the sitting room of the apartments, upon which the defendant had written in an incoherent and illiterate manner. The contents are not material, nor of a nature to be recited. He stated his ‘love was dead,’ that he was ‘almost dead,’ and that she had been ‘raped by her uncle.’ The uncle was charged with being the cause, and with having long abused the deceased. The other statements read like the maudlin ravings of a drunken man, with some possible notion of throwing the blame for the act upon the conduct of the uncle of the deceased.
The defendant was examined as a witness in his own behalf, and according to his testimony the deceased had committed suicide while affected by whisky, which she had drunk to excess, after returning to their apartment, and also by his threat to leave her because of her habits. He testified that, upon discovering that the deceased had killed herself in the adjoining room, he endeavored to take his own life, and that, while in a dazed condition, he had gone to the police station. He explained that he did not send for a doctor, because he found her dead, and ‘for the reason that he would give himself away,’ because he had been ‘harsh’ to her. He denied remembering having told the police officers that he had killed the woman. He testified that the deceased had made previous attempts to commit suicide; that ...
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