Title: James v. State
Citation: 354 N.E.2d 236
Docket Number: 1275S385
State: Indiana
Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court
Date: September 22, 1976

354 N.E.2d 236 (1976)
Sam JAMES, Jr., Appellant,
v.
STATE of Indiana, Appellee.
No. 1275S385.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
September 22, 1976.
*238 Anthony V. Luber, South Bend, for appellant.
Theodore L. Sendak, Atty. Gen., Arthur Thaddeus Perry, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.
DEBRULER, Justice.
Defendant-appellant, Sam James, Jr., was convicted of first degree murder, Ind. Code § 35-13-4-1, after a trial by jury, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He claims that the trial court erred in six respects:
(1) The trial court admitted over objection State's exhibit 1, a photograph of the victim's body.
(2) The trial court gave State's Instruction No. 3, defining the elements of the offense of first degree murder.
(3) The trial court gave State's Instruction No. 5, concerning the jury's consideration of the evidence.
(4) The trial court gave State's Instruction No. 6, charging the jurors that they might consider flight as a circumstance showing guilt.
(5) The trial court gave State's Instruction No. 8 concerning the availability of voluntary intoxication as a defense.
(6) The verdict is alleged to be unsupported by sufficient evidence of premeditation and sanity.
The evidence received by the jury upon which it might reasonably have relied in reaching its verdict disclosed that appellant was married to the victim Connie James and lived with her and their children. He had been a security guard for Notre Dame University, but on November 3, 1973, he argued with his supervisor and was first fired, then reinstated on a probationary basis. Around this time appellant and his wife had arguments concerning appellant's adequacy as a provider and his wife's intention to work.
On the evening of November 6, 1973, appellant and his wife were in their bedroom arguing; their eighteen year old daughter Patti was also present in the room. He had a gun in a holster on the bed. After his wife agreed with appellant's assertion that they no longer loved each other, appellant drew the gun. Patti tried to hold appellant, heard a shot, and saw her mother fall with blood on her. Appellant's son Sam, fourteen, had shortly before heard appellant threaten to shoot his wife if she would *239 not "hold still." Sam heard the gunshot and heard appellant first tell Patti that the victim had only fainted, then say "She's really dead."
After the shooting appellant took his gun, such money as he could find around the house, and left. He told Floyd Ebersole, a friend, that he had done "something bad;" he had accidentally shot his wife. He asked Ebersole to "give him a half-hour to run" before notifying the police. Appellant appeared at the home of another friend, Robert Kinas, and told Kinas that Patti had shot her mother. He asked to trade guns with Kinas.
Appellant was arrested on November 7, 1973, in Crittenden County, Arkansas, by the local sheriff. He told the sheriff, after being warned of his rights, that his gun had gone off during a scuffle with his wife, shooting her, and that he had disposed of the gun in a river.
Appellant was returned to St. Joseph County where he plead not guilty to an indictment for first degree murder and raised the defense of insanity. At trial several family friends and the family's pastor testified as to factors tending to show that appellant was under stress, was taking various medications, and was acting "out of the ordinary." Father Maley, the pastor, had suggested that appellant see a psychiatrist, on the day of the shooting.
Two practicing psychiatrists, Doctor Urruti and Doctor Harris, were appointed by the court to examine appellant. Dr. Urruti testified that the version of the episode related by appellant would lead him to believe that appellant acted in an "alcoholic blackout," a physiological condition caused by chronic alcoholism in which appellant could have acted without being consciously aware of his actions. Dr. Urruti testified that this condition was not exacerbated by emotional stress. Dr. Urruti did not find appellant to be otherwise suffering from any mental disease or defect. Dr. Harris did not find appellant to be subject to any mental disease or defect which resulted in "his lacking substantial capacity to either appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law at that time." The jury returned a verdict of guilty to the indictment.
Appellant first contends that State's exhibit 1, a single black and white photograph of the victim's body, showing blood on her neck and clothing, should not have been admitted because "the gruesome nature of the picture was calculated to arouse the passions of the jury against the accused and served no other legitimate purpose."
We do not agree. In Patterson v. State, (1975) Ind., 324 N.E.2d 482, we recognized that:
Here, as in Patterson, the photograph was "relevant and competent ... to assist the jurors in orienting themselves in and understanding other evidence." Id. The photograph showed the identity of the victim, the location of the wound, and the position of her body. It was therefore useful to the jury notwithstanding the existence of verbal testimony on the same points.
Appellant urges error in the giving of State's Instruction No. 3 which reads:
Appellant objected to the language "[T]here need be no appreciable space of time between the formation of the intention to kill and the killing. They may be as instantaneous as successive thoughts." This language, it is argued, "omits the requirement that there be time for premeditation."
The phrases "no appreciable space of time" and "as instantaneous as successive thoughts" appeared in a similar instruction considered by this Court in Frances v. State, (1974) Ind., 316 N.E.2d 364. The Court said of that instruction: "The instruction is a precise statement of the law and can in no way be impugned." 316 N.E.2d  at 367.
Appellant also objected to State's Instruction No. 5, which stated:
This instruction was approved by a majority of this Court in Ringham v. State, (1974) Ind., 308 N.E.2d 863, 866 (DeBruler, J., dissenting). It was not error to give this instruction.
Appellant objected to State's Instruction 6, which instruction was as follows:
Appellant argues that the instruction "invaded the province of the jury by commenting on a bit of evidence and thus giving it weight and emphasis." The instruction was proper. It did not command the *241 jury to consider flight as evidence of guilt, but informed them that flight was a circumstance which the jury may consider. It did not annul the authority of the jury as the trier of fact to draw or not to draw inferences it might deem appropriate from any evidence of flight. It did not suggest what weight or value should be given by the jury to any evidence of flight or inference of guilt which the jury might choose to make. Dedrick v. State, (1936) 210 Ind. 259, 2 N.E.2d 409.
Appellant's next claim of error relates to two instructions given by the trial court on the availability of voluntary intoxication as a defense. State's Instruction No. 8 read:
Appellant's Instruction No. 9, read:
Appellant argues that Snipes v. State, (1974) Ind., 307 N.E.2d 470, held that an instruction such as State's Instruction No. 8 was an erroneous statement of law, and that an instruction in the form of appellant's Instruction No. 9 was correct. In Snipes only the former instruction was given. Here the jury received the State's instruction to the effect that voluntary intoxication is not a defense in general, and appellant's instruction that voluntary intoxication may preclude the formation of specific intent. Together the instructions constitute an accurate statement of the law; the first states the general rule and the second the exception. Instructions are to be considered as a whole. Cockrum v. State, (1968) 250 Ind. 366, 234 N.E.2d 479.
Appellant finally urges that there was not sufficient evidence to support the verdict. Specifically appellant alleges lack of evidence of the element of premeditation, and of appellant's sanity at the time of the shooting.
As we have often stated before, in reviewing the allegation of insufficient evidence this Court will not weigh the evidence nor resolve questions of credibility of witness, but will look to that evidence and the reasonable inferences therefrom which support the verdict of the jury. Asher v. State, (1969) 253 Ind. 25, 244 N.E.2d 89. The conviction will be affirmed if from that viewpoint there is evidence of probative value from which the trier of fact could reasonably infer the existence of each element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Smith v. State, (1970) 254 Ind. 401, 260 N.E.2d 558.
It is necessary to a conviction of first degree murder that the appellant kill with premeditated malice.
In Maxwell v. State, (1970) 254 Ind. 490, 260 N.E.2d 787, the appellant had pointed a gun at the victim for the space of time required for a witness to turn away and turn back. This Court held that "the pointing of the gun and the shooting were not simultaneous, but rather separated by a time lapse, sufficient for appellant to have deliberated upon his intent." 245 Ind. 490, 495, 260 N.E.2d 787, 790.
Here there was testimony that appellant pulled his gun, pointed it at his wife and shot her. This evidence was sufficient for the jury to infer that appellant had sufficient time to, and did, deliberate upon the intent and the moral quality of the design to take life.
Whenever the issue of insanity is raised, the State must prove the accused sane beyond a reasonable doubt. Johnson v. State, (1970) 255 Ind. 324, 264 N.E.2d 57. "A person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law." Hill v. State, (1970) 252 Ind. 601, 251 N.E.2d 429.
There was direct testimony by one of the psychiatric witnesses, Dr. Harris, that appellant did not, in his opinion, lack capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or conform his conduct to legal requirements. This testimony alone was sufficient for the jury to find appellant sane. Appellant places great weight on evidence of emotional stress and unusual behavior on his part; while these may have existed, they do not automatically require that appellant be found insane. Many people who commit crimes have emotional problems and behave abnormally. The very fact that a person commits a violent crime indicates that he has difficulty functioning normally in society. But to be relieved of criminal responsibility for his acts, a person must meet the legal standard of insanity. Even had the jury believed all of appellant's witnesses, they could still have reasonably found him sane.
The conviction is ordered affirmed.
GIVAN, C.J., and ARTERBURN, HUNTER and PRENTICE, JJ., concur.