People v. Largent
People v. Largent
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal by defendant from a judgment of conviction following a jury verdict finding him guilty ■ of the crime of assault with a deadly weapon.
Shortly after midnight on June 3, 1957, the victim, Raul Perez, was in a bar at Weed, California. In the bar at the same time were the defendant and several other customers. As Perez was returning from the restroom, he heard the defendant say to a man sitting next to him, “You have to watch these Mexicans and Niggers, they all carry knives.” Upon hearing this, Perez confronted the defendant, stating, “This is one Mexican you don’t have to worry about. I don’t carry a knife.” Perez testified that as he said this he raised his hands. Defendant replied, “Don’t hit me. I got a broken jaw.” There was additional testimony concerning Perez’s actions immediately before the assault; to wit, that he invited the defendant outside the bar, and that he raised his hands as if to strike him. Defendant then cut Perez with a knife, inflicting two wounds upon his stomach. Others at the bar forced defendant to drop the knife on the floor.
Defendant does not deny that, he cut Perez but contends that he did so in self-defense. His first contention is that the court erred in allowing in evidence only the portions of the conversation previously quoted and in refusing defendant the right to put in evidence all of the conversation between defendant and the bar patrons. The record in this regard shows that during the course of defense counsel’s opening statement, the court interrupted, the jury was excused and counsel requested to make an offer of proof. In substance the offer was that prior to the attack one of the persons in the group at the bar asked the defendant if he lived in that
“The rule is supported by many authorities that on a trial for homicide, or for an assault and battery, the defendant, after laying a proper foundation by evidence tending to show that, in committing the homicide or assault, he acted in self-defense, may introduce evidence of the turbulent and dangerous character of the deceased or party assaulted. . . . [T]he law recognizes the well-established fact in human experience that the known reputation or character of an assailant as to violence and turbulence has a very material bearing on the degree and nature of the apprehension of danger on the part of a person assaulted; ...”
Necessarily, therefore, the court erred in refusing the evidence offered by the defendant since it tended to show the belligerent conduct of Perez and the apprehension of the danger on the part of defendant. The error in this regard looms larger when considered in relation to the People’s instruction number 14, given by the court and read a second time when the jury returned and asked for further instructions on the question of self-defense, which is as follows:
“The law does not permit or justify one who intends to commit an assault upon another to design in advance his own defense by instigating a quarrel or a combat with a view thereby to create a situation wherein the infliction of the intended injury will appear to have been done in self-defense.”
Had the court allowed the testimony, the jury could have inferred therefrom that by reason of Perez’s belligerence and boastfulness concerning his prowess as a fighter, he could protect himself without a knife. But by the refusal of the proffered testimony, the defendant was placed in the position of having in effect instigated a quarrel.
It is defendant’s further contention that the court also
In the event of a retrial, what we have heretofore said concerning the evidence offered by defendant but refused by the court, xvould appear to ansxver defendant’s contentions relative to the instructions given by the trial court.
The judgment is reversed.
Van Dyke, P. J., and Sehottky, J., concurred.
A petition for a rehearing xvas denied December 22, 1958, and respondent’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court xvas denied January 21, 1959. Traynor, J., xvas of the opinion that the petition should be granted.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.