State v. Crenshaw

Defendant was convicted of second degree murder by allegedly “pushing or shoving” Irene Marty over a cliff into the Columbia river gorge. He appeals on several grounds, including that there was not sufficient evidence to make a jury question. We agree.

The evidence of the alleged crime was entirely circumstantial. About noon on the day of the episode defendant became acquainted with a man named Leonard Pruchniewski in a secondhand store in east Multnomah County operated by defendant’s brother. Soon thereafter defendant and Pruchniewski went across the street to a tavern. They began drinking…