Opinion ID: 1183644
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Evidence of Defendant's Sanity

Text: The main thrust of the appeal seems to be the contention that after defendant had introduced expert testimony of his insanity the State, which then had the burden of proving his sanity beyond a reasonable doubt, presented no substantial evidence to satisfy its burden. In that regard, the record does bear out defendant's witnesses, Drs. Pace and Katz, to have testified that in their respective opinions the defendant was insane at the time of the commission of the alleged offense, which views the State did not thereafter controvert. In his argument on this phase of the appeal, defendant relies on Reilly v. State, Wyo., 496 P.2d 899, 902-905, and says that the evidence in that and the instant case is practically the same except that here no lay testimony was directed to the issue of defendant's sanity at the time of the offense. The argument on this view is challenging and if valid might well be cause for reversal of the instant conviction. Hence, it must be scrutinized with care. An examination of the two cases discloses, however, that over and above the fact that in Gerard the State presented no testimony concerning sanity after the psychiatrists had given their respective views there are numerous differences. For instance, no one saw Reilly immediately before or after the fatal occurrence and lay testimony regarding his mental condition related to a time several days afterwards. Moreover, it was quite desultory and indefinite. An entirely different situation obtained in the instant case since numerous witnesses saw and talked to Gerard immediately before the shooting and one thereafter. All such testimony had a direct relation to his state of mind at the time; and as has been previously indicated, Gerard took the stand in his own behalf and talked at length about his state of mind  not only at the time of the shooting but long previously. Since the jury was fully and properly instructed, these facts were within its consideration in the determination concerning the defendant's sanity. Without receding in any respect from our pronouncement in Reilly that the evidence of defendant's insanity erases the initial presumption of sanity, we find little to substantiate counsel's misapprehension of the lay testimony which bore on defendant's sanity at the time of the offense. The record discloses significant testimony from the various eyewitnesses as to events immediately preceding the shooting. On September 18, 1969, Frank Gerard, the defendant; Walter Plenty Chief, Jr.; Kenneth Yelich; Richard Howard; and Daniel B. Schouten, employed by a construction company, lived together in a company bunkhouse at a site in Gillette, Wyoming. About five o'clock in the afternoon on the eighteenth Gerard, Howard, and Plenty Chief bought groceries and Gerard bought a pint of whiskey. They ate a meal at their bunkhouse and together with the other men drank the pint of whiskey, after which another bottle or two were procured and consumed. Gerard and Plenty Chief became involved in a heated argument, which stopped just short of violence. During the argument, Schouten left the bunkhouse to get their foreman, the deceased (who had also been drinking); but by the time the foreman came to the bunkhouse the argument between Gerard and Plenty Chief had been settled. An altercation then ensued between the foreman and Gerard. The defendant's version was:    and Ronald Jones came over to the bunkhouse and came storming in. Q Where were you when he came in? A In the vicinity of my bunk. I don't remember if I was sitting on it or if I was standing. Q What happened after he came in? A Well, he come in and he asked, he said, `What the hell's going on?' and it wasn't too belligerent a manner really, you know. I mean, I wouldn't say the man was angry at the outset, really angry. I mean, this is my consensus. I wouldn't say he was really angry at the outset. But he said rather intensely, let's put it that way, `What the hell's going on?' Q What happened next? A I forget now whether Chief retorted first or myself, but I remember myself telling the man that everything, you know  there was a little hassle, there was a misunderstanding or words to that effect, and that you know `It's all quieted down. Everything's okay,' you know. So, I was in the process of taking off my clothes at the time he walked in, and, well, during the time the conversation, you know, was taking place, I headed for my bunk and, if I remember correctly, I had my shoes off, my shirt off, and the man approached the bunk and he told me, he says, `You're a troublemaker.' And I said, `No,' I said, `how do you come to that conclusion?' He says, `This Indian is the best man that I have.' He says, `What the hell are you,' you know, `arguing with him for?' I said, `Look,' I said, `everybody's been drinking, including myself,' I said, `so an argument ensued.' I said `It's not any more my fault than it is his.' And I said, `Besides, the argument's quieted down anyhow, so,' I said, `why is it you're having an interest?' And he said something to the effect you know, `Don't get smarting off.' And I says, `I'm not smarting off.' I says, `You're the foreman,' you know. I says, `You're the boss. You run the project.' I says, `I'm not getting smart with you.' I said, `I accept the fact that you're the boss,' I says, `and I accept the fact,' you know, `that if you want to know what transpired,' I says, `I'll tell you.' So then somewhere along in that area he turned around and he asked Walt, you know, what had transpired, and Walt told him, as near as I can remember anyhow, he told the man that I had said that, you know, he was on welfare. Q What happened next? A I intervened and I said  like I say, I was standing over by the bunk, and I intervened and I said  `No, that's not what I said, sport,' and I told him what I had said previously. And Mr. Jones turned around and said to me, he says, `You're a smart ass,' you know, `a troublemaker.' So, I told the man, I says, `Look, I'm intending leaving this week anyhow just as soon as I,' you know, `acquire my check,' I said, `so why not just  I'll come back for my check in the morning.' He says, `You better hit that bed,' he says, `or get the hell out, pack your clothes and get the hell out.' I said, `You're on.' So, I turned around to pack my clothes and, the next thing I know, bam, I'm down on the bed and up against the wall and I saw the fist coming, but not in time to get out of its way or to block it. Anyhow, I wound up on the bed against the wall   . Defendant explained in detail his version of the fight, how he was clubbed by Jones' fists and when Plenty Chief also attacked him, twice kneed in the groin. He continued:    I tried to go backwards and swing with them you know, to release some of the pressure, but there was two of them on me. And I don't know how far back down I was when my fingers popped, but I felt them pop and, when they did, I yanked my hand back, you know, to pull away and I took a look at my hand and I thought to myself, Jesus Christ, what the hell did he do that for, you know. I couldn't understand and I really could not understand why in the hell he did it. Q What did you do next? A I just pushed my way between them. Q Where did you go? A I went out the door. Gerard said he remembered nothing after that until he was about a half-block from a Gulf station where he reported a shooting. According to Plenty Chief the deceased struck Gerard along his cheek slapped him off of the bunk    he fell    and I guess    knocked three fingers out of joint. Mr. Gerard said that his hand was hurting. He showed it to Jones    and    kept saying things about his hand so he [Jones] just told him to leave. Plenty Chief said Gerard left, later called Jones to come out, and there were shots. When Plenty Chief left the bunkhouse he found the deceased lying face down on the ground. As Plenty Chief was on the ground with the deceased, he noticed the opened trunk of Gerard's car. Schouten testified that after Gerard left the bunkhouse he knew he went to his car because he heard a trunk open and that when Gerard called the deceased one of the men said, `You'd better not go out. He might have a gun.' Mrs. Jones was waiting outside in a truck for her husband and saw the defendant leave the bunkhouse, go to the side of a car, and then to the back of the car. She testified: [Gerard said] `Hey, Ron.'    Ron walked to the door of the bunkhouse and    said, `Ho,' or `Hey,' or something like that    and Mr. Gerard said, `C'mere a minute.' And Ron says, `Where are you at? I can't see you.' And when Ron said this, he started walking out the doorway down this shaft of light that was made from the door being open. And Mr. Gerard in the meantime had started walking from in back of the car and was just almost to the shaft of light and then he stepped into the shaft of light and he said, `Here, you sonofabitch,' and then he shot.    when he [Jones] reached Mr. Gerard he put his hand in front of him    and then he fell backward into the dark  it was very dark that night  but he fell into the shadow of the building, which made it even darker. Jim Wineteer, who was a gas station attendant at the Gulf station, a block and a half from the bunkhouse, heard what he thought were five shots and a woman screaming, and about twenty minutes later the defendant arrived at the station (dressed normal and he had bloodstains on his shirt, and the two fingers on his right hand were dislocated or they were bent clear back), asking for change for cigarettes. He testified: Q And what, if anything, did you say? A I give him his change and then I asked him what happened or if he knew what happened. Q And what did he say? A He said, `A guy's been shot.' Q What then happened? What did you do? A Well, he sat down in the chair there for a little while. And then I had called the police before that, or somebody else had already called it in, so they was on their way. And then he sat down in the chair. And a bunch of police cars and stuff pulled up out on the street there and I walked out to the policemen there and told them there was a guy sitting in the office that said a guy had been shot.    Q Did they then take him into custody? A Yes. He was walking out of the station and they took him then. The record is replete with evidence from various eyewitnesses as to the events immediately preceding and following the shooting. This the jury was entitled to consider on the issue of defendant's sanity at the time of the offense. We noted in Reilly, supra, that neither the trial court nor this body should substitute its opinion for that of the jury, whose finding of fact should not be interfered with if there is any substantial evidence to support it. As the court said in People v. Krugman, 377 Mich. 559, 141 N.W.2d 33, 35, The jury is the ultimate judge of defendant's sanity at the time of the crime, and    since it had before it evidence of defendant's behavior and state of mind upon the basis of which it could have found defendant sane at that time, it was not bound by the expert opinion testimony of the doctor.    We again recognized this view in Jarrett v. State, Wyo., 500 P.2d 1027, 1031-1032, involving a murder charge, where we held that the trial court correctly denied a motion for acquittal notwithstanding the testimony of psychiatrists that defendant had suffered from a mental disease or disorder, our position being that the other evidence which had been adduced was sufficient to show that defendant knew and understood the nature and probable consequences of his act, knew that it was morally wrong or forbidden by law, and had sufficient will power to control his acts. As Mr. Chief Justice McIntyre said in Rice v. State, Wyo., 500 P.2d 675, 676, A jury can always disregard the testimony of an expert if the jurors find it to be unreasonable. Careful analysis of the record in this case under the above outlined rules discloses ample evidence to support the finding of the jury that defendant was sane at the time of the crime. Accordingly, the judgment of the trial court must be affirmed. Affirmed. GUTHRIE, J., not participating.