People v. Moss
| Decision Date | 28 February 1969 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 3908,No. 1,1 |
| Citation | 167 N.W.2d 788,16 Mich.App. 295 |
| Parties | PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Quention Lavon MOSS, Defendant-Appellant |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
Gilbert A. Donohue, Detroit, for defendant-appellant.
Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen., Robert A. Derengoski, Sol. Gen., Lansing, William L. Cahalan, Pros. Atty., Samuel J. Torina, Chief Appellate Lawyer, Stephen H. Boak, Asst. Pros. Atty. Wayne County, Detroit, for plaintiff-appellee.
Before LEVIN, P.J., and HOLBROOK and ROOD, * JJ.
Defendant Quention Lavon Moss was tried by jury, convicted of murder in the first degree 1 and sentenced to life imprisonment. On appeal there is one assignment of error. He contends that there was insufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict of guilty.
About 5 p.m. on April 1, 1966, Gabrail Quasquargis, the proprietor of Jerry's Market, was found dead in the store. An autopsy showed that he had been slashed and stabbed 36 times, once through the heart, allegedly with a butcher knife and possibly a meat cleaver found in the store. In June, 1966, the defendant was located in Los Angeles and brought back to Michigan for trial.
The record discloses that the victim's wife testified that she was in the store at 1:30 p.m. when a man who looked like the defendant to her threatened to kill her husband. Another witness testified that later that afternoon, while she was in the store, the defendant became angry and threatened the victim.
Several witnesses was lived in a building across the street from the grocery store saw the defendant shortly after the crime had been committed. They easily recognized the defendant since he was a former tenant of the building. One witness, James L. Watts, a friend of the defendant, testified that the defendant came to his apartment and appeared to be hurt. Mr. Watts testified that the defendant told him that he and the grocer had a misunderstanding, that he had cut and tried to rob the grocer and had killed him. Watts stated that he gave the defendant some different clothes and the defendant put his own clothes in a paper bag. Another tenant in the building testified that she saw the defendant emerge from the basement of the building and leave a paper bag in the garbage receptacle at the rear of the building.
The defendant's clothes, recovered from the garbage receptacle, were found to contain blood stains of type A, the victim's type. Various blood stains in the grocery store were found to belong to type O, the defendant's type.
The defense consisted of testimony by the defendant's employer that on April 1, 1966, the defendant punched into work a few minutes before 7 a.m. and left at 3:25 p.m. He also said that Friday, April 1, 1966, was payday and that the defendant received a paycheck for over $100. The check was cashed at a restaurant across the street from defendant's place of employment. A fellow employee testified that at 3:30 p.m. he drove the defendant to a point about 2 or 3 blocks from the factory. It appears that the factory was...
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