State v. Custer

Charged by information with murder in the first degree for the killing of E.C. Costlow, defendant was tried, convicted of murder in the second degree, sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in accordance with the verdict and has appealed.

At the time of the homicide the defendant, a man about eighty years of age, lived with his elderly and partially blind wife on a small farm, which they did not own. They were in poor circumstances financially and it appears were occupying the house rather by sufferance of the owner than by right. A short time previously Costlow had leased the premises from the…