State v. Maslich
State v. Maslich
Opinion of the Court
Steve Maslich was charged Jointly with Nick Oblizalo, by information filed by the district attorney, with the crime of murder in the first degree. Maslich was accorded a separate trial; was convicted of the crime charged and sentenced to death. From that judgment he appeals. His counsel argue
On Sunday afternoon, August 3, 1919, Marko Laus was found dead in a ravine near a highway leading to Parley’s canyon in Salt Lake county. His body had been mutilated, cut, and hacked. His nose had been broken by a blow. His throat had been cut, his windpipe being almost severed. He had been^stabbed just below where his throat had been cut. Three knife wounds had been inflicted on the breast of the murdered man' near his heart. He was' stabbed in the side, in the back, and in the head. His hands were cut. His clothing had been torn from his body. .His vest had been ripped open and the buttons ripped from it, and his trousers ripped open. His shirt and underclothing were torn so that the entire upper part of his body was exposed. No money was found on the body. Nothing was left in his pockets except a small knife. At about 2:30 on the afternoon of that day two men and a woman in an automobile saw three men struggling at the edge of the ravine. Two of the men were holding the third, who was struck in the face by one of the others, and then the three men vanished from sight into the ravine in which the murdered man was thereafter found near the scene of the struggle. One of the .men in the automobile stated that the two men vtere beating up some- one, and started over to interfere, when the woman made an objection, and the suggested interference was not consummated. The two men in the automobile could not identify either of the two assailants, but they described their clothing and the hat of one of them. This description corresponded with that' given by other witnesses of the clothing worn by Maslich and Oblizalo that day. On the day of the murder Oblizalo and Laus were seen together in Salt Lake City till nearly 2 p. m. Several days before the homicide Marko Laus came to Salt Lake City from Colorado with from $1,000 to $1,200 in gold upon his person, and it is fairly inferable from the evidence that he had this money in his possession when he was murdered. Neither the appellant nor his codefendant had any money prior to the murder. Both were what the witnesses call
These are only a few of the many incriminatory circumstances proved by the state. The record presents a gruesome story of sordidity and brutality. The evidence establishes that appellant and his codefendant entered into a conspiracy to rob Marko Laus, and that in perpetrating
Appellant assigns as error' the admission of testimony taken at the preliminary examination because the transcript contained no title- page at the date it was filed, because it was certified to after being filed, and because the original notes of the Reporter, written at the preliminary hearing, were never filed with the clerk of the district court as required by statute. If it be assumed that a title page is a material part of a transcript, the difficulty can be cured by amendment, as was done in this ease. State v. Vance, 38 Utah, 27, 110 Pac.
“The filing of the original notes can he required but for one purpose, namely, to enable counsel for the state and the accused to determine whether the longhand transcript of the testimony and the proceedings correspond with the original notes. Beyond this, they can perform no function whatever.”
The assignment of error relating to admission of testimony from the transcript is therefore not well founded.
Appellant was accorded a fair trial. An impartial jury found him guilty. No reason exists for interfering with the verdict. The judgment is therefore affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE v. MASLICH
- Status
- Published