Title: Sizemore v. Com.

State: virginia

Issuer: Virginia Supreme Court

Document:

243 S.E.2d 212 (1978)
Jerry Martin SIZEMORE
v.
COMMONWEALTH of Virginia.
Record No. 771007.

Supreme Court of Virginia.
April 21, 1978.
Thomas G. Hodges, Wytheville (Campbell, Young & Hodges, Wytheville, on brief), for plaintiff in error.
Jerry P. Slonaker, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Anthony F. Troy, Atty. Gen., on brief), for defendant in error.
Before I'ANSON, C. J., and CARRICO, HARRISON, COCHRAN, HARMAN and COMPTON, JJ.
HARRISON, Justice.
Jerry Martin Sizemore was convicted by the court below of attempting to murder a Virginia State Trooper and was sentenced to serve four years in the state penitentiary. This appeal questions the sufficiency of the evidence to convict.
On September 19, 1976, the defendant was involved in an automobile accident in Smyth County, left the scene and later abandoned his car. Trooper B. J. Atwood determined that the abandoned car belonged to Sizemore. The trooper knew that Sizemore lived with his parents, and he proceeded to their home to interrogate defendant. When he knocked at the door of the Sizemore home the defendant responded and admitted the trooper. Atwood then interviewed defendant in the presence of Lloyd Spencer, a friend of Sizemore's.
Atwood testified that Sizemore denied any involvement in the accident and claimed that his car had that day been stolen and that his sister, Pamela, was supposed to have reported the theft. The officer *213 asked to speak to the sister, and Sizemore called her. When the young girl came into the room Atwood inquired if he could talk to her on the outside. Atwood testified that during their conversation in his police car the girl told him her brother's car had not been stolen. The officer said that after they had been talking for about five or ten minutes, he heard someone say in a loud tone of voice, "Pam, get out of that car." He stated that when he looked in the direction from which the voice came he saw Sizemore standing in front of the house, approximately 20-25 feet from the police car, with a .22 caliber automatic rifle to his left shoulder, pointed straight at him. The trooper's version of what then occurred is as follows:
Atwood was the only witness called by the Commonwealth. Sizemore testified in his own behalf, but remembered nothing about the events of the day other than that he had gotten up in the morning and had been drinking beer and whiskey and driving his automobile around.
It is well established that an attempt is composed of two elements: the intention to commit the crime, and the doing of some direct act towards its consummation which is more than mere preparation but falls short of execution of the ultimate purpose. Martin v. Commonwealth, 195 Va. 1107, 81 S.E.2d 574 (1954). *214 In Glover v. Commonwealth, 86 Va. 382, 385-86, 10 S.E. 420, 421 (1889), we defined "attempt" as follows:
The defendant contends that his acts were preparatory only, and that the ineffectual act that would commence the consummation of the crime would be that of shooting rather than pointing the gun. Counsel for Sizemore argues that for a defendant to be guilty of attempted murder, he must either be pulling the trigger and be thwarted by an outside force, or have actually pulled the trigger in an attempt to kill someone. He relies upon Howard v. Commonwealth, 207 Va. 222, 148 S.E.2d 800 (1966), and Mullins v. Commonwealth, 174 Va. 477, 5 S.E.2d 491 (1939).
In Howard an officer investigating an accident was seized by Howard and his confederate and forced to accompany them in a police car. Howard told his confederate that if the officer said anything regarding street names loud enough to be heard on the radio of the car the confederate was to kill the officer. When a street number was mentioned a cocked gun was thrust into the officer's face. The officer instinctively threw up his hands and struck the gun which then "went off". In affirming the conviction for attempted murder, the Court said:
In Mullins, a prosecution for the attempted rape of a seven-year-old child, the accused enticed the child into the woods, suggested that they have sexual intercourse and snatched a button from her snowsuit. Upon the child's saying "leave me alone", the accused desisted. We reversed the conviction, saying:
Sizemore argues that he too voluntarily terminated his actions at the trooper's request, and that he was not frustrated in the consummation of the crime by any extraneous circumstance.
It is the Commonwealth's position that Sizemore resolved to murder Trooper Atwood and proceeded so far in carrying out this criminal enterprise that his acts amounted to an indictable attempt, and that it did not cease to be such even if defendant did, in fact, subsequently abandon his evil purpose. The Attorney General cites Lee v. Commonwealth, 144 Va. 594, 600, 131 S.E. 212, 214 (1926), and Martin v. Commonwealth, 195 Va. 1107, 1112, 81 S.E.2d 574, 577 (1954), where we quoted *215 with approval the following statement from Stokes v. State, 92 Miss. 415, 46 So. 627 (1908):
This Court has recognized in numerous cases the fact that the question of what constitutes an attempt is often intricate and difficult to determine, and that no general rule can be laid down which will serve as a test in all cases. Each case must be determined on its own facts. See Howard v. Commonwealth, 207 Va. 222, 228, 148 S.E.2d 800, 804 (1966), quoting from 21 Am.Jur.2d Criminal Law § 110 (1965); and Granberry v. Commonwealth, 184 Va. 674, 678, 36 S.E.2d 547, 548 (1946).
It does appear that on the day of the alleged offense Sizemore had been drinking heavily and that he did receive a head injury in the automobile accident. However, the trooper testified that while Sizemore had the odor of alcohol about his person, he answered all questions clearly and intelligently, and that the defendant did not appear to be drunk when he came out of the house. The trooper said, at that time Sizemore "never staggered; he walked steadily; the gun he was holding on me never wavered any appreciable amount, and he appeared to be very much in control of himself".
The testimony is clear and uncontradicted. Sizemore voluntarily armed himself with a loaded rifle, pointed it at the trooper and approached to within five feet of his intended victim, threatening repeatedly to kill him. Significantly, there was no unpleasantness when the parties were in the house. It was obviously the trooper's request for a private conversation with Sizemore's sister that provoked the defendant and triggered his actions. It is reasonable to believe that defendant anticipated that his sister would tell the trooper the truth, that is, that Sizemore's vehicle had not been stolen, and that it was Sizemore who was driving the car at the time it wrecked.
Fortunately, something caused the defendant to abandon his criminal enterprise. It is not known whether this was due to a qualm of conscience; the possibility that if he shot, the bullet might strike his sister; the refusal of his friend to disarm the trooper; the statements made by the trooper that he would be tried for murder and possibly electrocuted; or the defendant's belief that if he shot, the trooper might be able to return his fire. In any event, the defendant did not shoot, and ultimately relinquished the gun to his friend after first activating the safety thereon. He did not perform the "last proximate act" necessary to commit the crime of murder. Our opinion in Merritt v. Commonwealth, 164 Va. 653, 657-58, 180 S.E. 395, 397 (1935), contains the following pertinent language:
See also Epps v. Commonwealth, 216 Va. 150, 216 S.E.2d 64 (1975).
The trial judge was justified in finding that Sizemore formed the purpose and the intent to murder Atwood after the trooper and the girl had left the house and had gone to the automobile for their private conversation. The motive was to frustrate the officer in his investigation of the hit-and-run charge and thereby prevent the arrest of defendant. The procuring of a loaded gun, the act of aiming it, the threats to kill, and the act of advancing on the *216 intended victim were all acts which the trial court could have found were done in furtherance of the intent previously formed by the defendant to murder Atwood. Had Sizemore pulled the trigger when he was only five feet from the trooper, that act most likely would have been the last proximate act of murder. The doing of that last act was not necessary to constitute the crime of attempted murder.
It can be said here, as it was in Hargrave v. Commonwealth, 214 Va. 436, 437, 201 S.E.2d 597, 598 (1974), that:
Accordingly, the judgment of the trial court is
Affirmed.