People v. Mercer

SHOEMAKER, J.—

Defendant Charles Mercer appeals from a conviction of murder in the second degree.

Early in the morning of May 9, 1961, defendant Mercer, an ex-Marine employed as a Puller Brush salesman, walked into the sheriff’s office in Salinas, California, and stated that he had killed a man. He told where the body was located and accompanied several officers to the scene. At the site, the officers found an expended bullet in the center of a large *155bloodstain on the nearby roadway. A trail of blood, bent grass and weeds led to a point about 29 feet north of the bloodstain, where lay the body…