State v. Avery

KELLER, District Judge.

Walter Robert Avery, the appellant, was convicted in the District Court of Weber County of murder in the first degree for the killing of Hoyt L. Gates, a police officer, on February 11, 1941. According to the uncontradicted evidence of the state, the appellant was engaged in the furtherance of an armed robbery of a grocery store in Ogden, Utah, at the time of the slaying. In the course of the robbery, Officer Gates was summoned to the scene by telephone. He was but a short distance inside the store when appellant commenced firing at him; one of the bullets from…