People v. Willard

The appellant was tried in Mendocino County for the alleged murder of J. H. Smith, the sheriff of that county.

The immediate circumstances attending the killing of deceased, although by no means the only evidence in the case, are undisputed. The defendant, a man forty-two years of age, was born in Mendocino County, and had lived there practically all his life. He had been twice committed by the judge of the superior court of Mendocino County, after examination as to his sanity held in the city of Ukiah, to the Mendocino state hospital for insane, in both instances on account of alcoholism, and…