State v. Demaree

BARRETT, Commissioner.

A jury has found that in killing his estranged wife Chalmer Demaree was guilty of murder in the second degree. The sufficiency of the evidence to support the finding of second degree murder is not challenged and, therefore, it is necessary to detail only those circumstances illustrative of the two theories of the killing.

Demaree says that as he sat in a rocking chair across the room from his wife he was suddenly aware of a slight commotion and when he turned around his wife was standing in front of the chair in which she had been sitting holding a pistol in both hands.…