People v. Fountain

Defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. He appeals from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

The victim was Margaret Milling, a girl of the age of ten years. Defendant was the janitor of a church in the city of Sacramento in the vicinity of which the little girl resided. On December 5, 1914, about 1 o’clock in the afternoon, the child left her home and went to the church where a sewing class to which she belonged was to meet for the purpose of preparing doll dresses for Christmas time. A few hours subsequently her dead body…