People v. Watkins

Plaintiff in error, Lyle Watkins, and his co-defendants, John Bauer and George O’Malley, were convicted of the crime of murder, in the circuit court of Madison county. Bauer and O’Malley were each sentenced to life imprisonment in the penitentiary and Watkins was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment. Watkins alone brings the record to this court for review.

Omitting the details, the evidence shows that the three defendants were residents of St. Louis-; that July 21, 1922, Bauer and O’Malley employed Watkins to take them in an automobile to Venice and Granite City; that Watkins hired a…