State v. Willis

— Roy Allen Willis, alias Lance Miller, alias Allen Kendall, admitted he shot and killed Helen M. Finnie in her apartment at approximately 4:30 a. m. on Sunday, October 28, 1962.

At the trial before a jury, his sole defense was that the homicide was the result of an accident which occurred as he pulled an unlicensed pistol from his pocket, upon arising from a bed on which he had been lying. The pistol then discharged, the bullet striking Helen Finnie almost exactly in the center of her forehead.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the second degree. From the judgment and…