People v. Schindler

• Decision Date: 03 June 1969
• Docket Number: Cr. 14681
• Citation: 78 Cal.Rptr. 633,273 Cal.App.2d 624
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Louis SCHINDLER, Defendant and Appellant.

Page 633

78 Cal.Rptr. 633

273 Cal.App.2d 624

The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Louis SCHINDLER, Defendant and Appellant.

Cr. 14681.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 2, California.

June 3, 1969.

Rehearing Denied June 27, 1969.

Hearing Denied July 30, 1969.

Jerome Weber and Bernard Mattison, by Bernard Mattison, Beverly Hills, for appellant.

Thomas C. Lynch, Atty. Gen., William E. James, Asst. Atty. Gen., Philip C. Griffin, Deputy Atty. Gen., for respondent.

ROTH, Presiding Justice.

Appellant charged with first degree murder of his wife, was convicted of second. He appeals from the judgment of conviction.

On April 9, 1967, the day of the murder, appellant was approximately 45 years of age. Appellant and June Schindler, his second wife, the victim, were married in December 1963. In May of 1964 they separated, but reconciled in November or December of 1964. In April 1966, a daughter was born to them. For some weeks prior to the fatal shooting, appellant and June were in the process of getting a divorce. Each continued to occupy separate bedrooms in the marital residence on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles.

In October 1966 and for some days in January and February of 1967, appellant hired a private detective to follow June.

On the evening of April 9, 1967, June expected Ceil Ross and other friends for a 'pot luck' dinner. Ceil Ross had known June Schindler for approximately 13 years. Ceil arrived first. Mona Fleeman arrived later with her daughter and a girl friend. June had prepared chicken. The guests contributed other food to the meal.

At about 8:30 p.m., appellant appeared at the marital residence with his friend Bill Teige. There were pieces of chicken in a platter on the breakfast bar, which separated the kitchen from the family room. Appellant invited Teige to join him in eating the chicken. June protested, 'It is not yours; the girls brought dinner.' Appellant and June exchanged words for about five minutes. Appellant and Teige are the chicken and went into the family room. Soon thereafter they left.

Shortly after 9:00 p.m. Mona Fleeman and the two girls left. Ceil stayed for about an hour and, among other things, commented that it must be difficult for June to live with appellant in the house. June answered, 'Yes. However, I have discussed it with my attorney and he said I could not get Lou out of the house unless he were to hit me, which he's not going to do.'

About 10:00 p.m., Inger Hakansson, a 19-year old girl recently arrived from Sweden, employed as a maid in the Schindler home, having had the day off, returned to the house.

Appellant returned at approximately 10:45 p.m. He came through the family room and back porch, looked into Inger's room and observed Inger and June in conversation.

The women ignored him and continued their conversation. He went away. Within a few minutes appellant returned. He was angry. He argued with June about the continued employment of Inger in Inger's presence. June left the room. Appellant left with her. Almost concurrently Inger heard June making a phone call from the family room. The telephone was normally [273 Cal.App.2d 629] kept against the wall on the bar and Inger had seen it there when she had returned home. She heard June say, 'Hi, Ceil. The big mouth is home now.'

Ceil confirmed that she received a phone call from June at about 11:00 p.m. June said, 'I had to call you and give you a big laugh. The big mouth just walked in and told me that he met you outside the house and that you told him that I was in love with another man.' June's tone of voice was sarcastic. As Ceil was about to reply she heard what sounded like the phone falling to the floor and sounds like the crack of chairs falling down; a great deal of screaming and the dog barking very loudly. She heard June say, 'Help! I need help!' Ceil listened for a few seconds longer but heard nothing. She hung up immediately, tried successively to reach June's number but heard only a busy signal. Ceil contacted the operator and called the police.

Inger testified that about four minutes after the Schindlers had left her room she heard a noise like the dog leash hitting something. It was a sharp metal sound. She heard the sound two or three, perhaps four times. Inger ran out of her room and stood in the doorway between the back porch and the kitchen. She looked through the kitchen into the family room and saw appellant standing by the entrance to the family room from the kitchen area, with a gun in his hand, two meters away from June. He was pointing the gun at June who was standing by the dining table. The telephone was on the floor near the dining table but closer to the breakfast bar. June 'appeared to be really upset; her hair was all mixed up'. Inger stood there for 30 seconds, she heard no words exchanged and ran back to her room and closed the door. After that she heard one or more sounds such as she heard before and then recognized them as gunshots. She did not see appellant again. Subsequently she met June in the back porch.

It is not disputed that Inger came out of her room and met June in the back porch. June had blood all over her and was in a disheveled condition, June told Inger to run to the nearby fire station for help. Inger helped June outside to the street and ran to the station. June walked down the street in the other direction. (June was found later lying face down in a planter bed, a short distance from the marital domicile. She was dead before the ambulance arrived.) Inger ran up the driveway to the fire station and found the captain. The police department and an ambulance were called. Inger later returned to the house and showed officers who subsequently arrived, various parts of the house.

The secretary to the attorney who represented the victim in the divorce action against appellant, testified in rebuttal to a telephone conversation with the victim on April 5, 1967. The victim, she said, told her that a gun which was customarily kept in the closet, was missing, and that she was afraid that appellant was going to kill her. This testimony was admitted for the sole purpose of showing the victim's state of mind.

Decedent's mother testified that in June of 1964 during a period of the Schindler's separation, appellant told her, 'If I can't have her (June) I'll fix it so no one else can.'

Decedent's brother testified that on December 25, 1966, during a family gathering at the Schindler home, he overheard appellant on the telephone, saying 'One of these days, I'm going to shoot June and the baby and her whole damned family,' and after a pause of about five seconds, appellant added, 'Oh, yes, I can get away with it.' The brother never told his sister nor anyone

else about having overheard this telephone conversation.

APPELLANT'S TESTIMONY

Appellant was and had been continuously in the carpet business as a mill representative. He had been previously married. There were two children of said marriage. There had been a separation in the prior marriage, preceding the divorce, and a reconciliation, which lasted three and one half years. During the period of his prior marriage, he had consulted a psychiatrist, Dr. Sidney Hulbert, on numerous occasions.

Following the termination of his first marriage, he met June Schindler in 1962 and married her in 1963. Shortly after his marriage to June, he constructed the family residence. After six months of marriage, there was a separation, but a reconciliation was effected in 1964. Following the reconciliation, a child was born to the couple on April 22, 1966. He owned a .32 caliber pistol, purchased in 1956 or 1957. At the time of the purchase he was travelling and frequently carried large sums of money. After his marriage to June, the gun was kept in the nightstand on his side of the bed in the master bedroom. The gun was loaded with six shells in the clip and one shell in the chamber; there was no other ammunition for the gun and it was the only gun he ever owned. He showed his wife on at least two occasions how to use the gun. On one occasion he saw the baby crawl on the floor and open the drawer where the gun was kept, whereupon he removed the gun from the night-stand to a shelf in the closet located between the powder room and the living room. He had seen the gun there about a week or two before the homicide.

In early February, 1967, June told him she wanted a divorce. He told her he did not want a divorce and suggested marriage counseling. The suggestion was ignored and he learned that the divorce action had already been filed five or six days previously. June asked him to leave the marital residence on a number of occasions. He told her he did not want to leave either her or his baby, that there was no necessity for him to do so, and that, if he could remain in the house, there was a prospect of saving the marriage. During the next five weeks, June, on a number of occasions, repeated her demand that he leave.

During the week prior to April 9, he purchased a microphone and installed it in June's bedroom, because he wanted to know if he could hear anything which would indicate whether or not there was a chance to save the marriage. On Saturday morning, April 8, he heard June say to someone that he had stolen the laundry and he heard June say to his friend Bill Teige 'I hope he drowns and winds up at the bottom with his boat.'

On Sunday morning, April 9, he went to his brother's office to study for a navigational course he was taking; made some phone calls to see if any friends would go sailing with him and went to the California Yacht Club and spoke to a man about membership in the yacht club.

He returned home at about 5:30 p.m., noticed that arrangements were being made to receive company and saw Mrs. Ross and Mrs. Fleeman arrive with her daughter and another teenager. He greeted them and left the house. Between approximately 6 and 9 p.m., he and Bill Teige went bowling and...