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Here's a short tale with lots of twists and turns.
In late August 1936, a young man was arrested for disturbing the peace during an incident in Los Angeles. While being processed for the said incident, it was discovered that the man, Jake Kays, was wanted in San Mateo County concerning an Oct. 8, 1933, fatal traffic accident. It took place on "Bayshore Highway" near Mills Field (now the San Francisco International Airport) that killed Louis E. Eaton, a well-known Redwood City insurance executive who lived on Arlington Street (now Arlington Road near Whipple Avenue). Eaton's wife and daughter sustained severe injuries.
Kays suffered a broken pelvis but managed to sneak out a rear door of San Mateo Community Hospital on Nov. 21, 1933, later claiming that he had no idea he was wanted for any criminal charges at the time. He chose not to explain why he exited covertly through a rear door instead of walking past the guards at the front of the hospital.
If Kays was hoping for a quick escape from the legal system, he was mistaken. The Sept. 11, 1936, edition of The Redwood City Tribune reported that a judge ordered Kays to go to trial "despite the 27-year-old mechanic's plea that he was not at fault."
Kays even said that Eaton was the one who had swerved into oncoming traffic. Kays entered a not guilty plea on the 28th before Superior Judge Maxwell McNutt, and the trial was set for Oct. 30, 1936.
On Oct. 27, however, Kays surprised everyone by changing his plea to guilty of manslaughter and requesting probation instead of jail time. As a further surprise, according to The Tribune, "Kays won probation on the charge after serving nearly three months in jail."
It's a very light sentence for the death of a prominent citizen of the city, or for anybody else for that matter.
