People v. Van Camp

As an aftermath of a beer party, participated in by 4 young men (3 of them married) and 2 unmarried young women, defendant got into a fight with 2 of his erstwhile friends. One of them, James Smallwood, died as a result of injuries suffered in the fight. Defendant was charged with first-degree murder, tried and found guilty of the included charge of manslaughter by jury verdict. He received a sentence of 7-1/2 to 15 years.

On appeal defendant presents 7 claims of error. We will deal first with those which pertain to claimed failure of proof of the corpus delicti, to claims of errors in the…