People v. Mendes

At about 7:30 p. m. on August 30, 1949, defendant, a 20-year-old Mexican farm laborer, together with Gonzales and Sandoval, entered the La Moderna Café in Grimes, California and embarked upon an evening of beer drinking. They had originally set out to take Gonzales from Colusa to his home in Arbuckle at the request of Maria Coronado. Maria was the common-law wife of Sandoval and the mother-in-law of defendant. Gonzales was a friend of the family. A tall man, a stranger to defendant but a friend of Gonzales, either accompanied the group from Colusa to Grimes or joined them in the café. Early…