Lester Alvin Buatte v. United States

HAMLEY, Circuit Judge.

Lester Alvin Buatte appeals from a judgment convicting him of assault with intent to commit murder on the person of Dan Secody, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1152 and 113(a) (1964). Consideration of the grounds for reversal urged by Buatte requires that we first review prior criminal proceedings involving this defendant.

On April 7,1962, Buatte shot and killed fourteen-year-old Alice Secody in her parents’ tent on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona. At the same time Buatte shot Alice’s brother, Dan, and struck him with a hammer. Dan’s injuries did not prove fatal. On…