State v. Christie

On the morning of Friday, June 9, 1950, the body of Vidar Vernon Bergman (age forty-three to forty-five years) was found slumped over in the left front seat of an automobile near the Des Moines River in the city of Des Moines. An autopsy revealed he died as the result of a gunshot wound. The bullet had penetrated the right side of his skull and was lodged on the opposite side just behind the left ear. The facts are not materially in dispute as to the cause of death and there is ample evidence that defendant (age twenty-one years) fired the fatal shot. His own statement to one witness made the…