Opinion ID: 1355314
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Suicide and Sufficiency of Evidence to Convict.

Text: It is also contended that the evidence introduced in this case failed to exclude the reasonable hypothesis that deceased committed suicide and that the evidence is insufficient to convict the defendant. Facts to negative suicide are admissible in evidence. Commonwealth v. Howard, 205 Mass. 128, 91 N.E. 397; Commonwealth v. Trefethen, 157 Mass. 180, 31 N.E. 961, 24 L.R.A. 235; Porter v. State, 86 Tex.Cr.R. 23, 215 S.W. 201; State v. Baldwin, 36 Kan. 1, 12 P. 318. In this case it appears the deceased drew $1900 out of the joint account at Riverton, and placed it in her personal account on the day of the homicide. She also rented an apartment for herself. She was afraid of guns. She did not want to go out to her home on the ranch except in company with someone else. When she got there, she kept her hat on and laid her coat on a chair. We think all of these facts tend to show she had no thought of committing suicide. The defendant testified that his wife had lately been nervous and depressed, and had told him that she had the change of life, and complained of headaches. Dr. Replogle testified on the strength of that testimony, that the deceased might have had a suicidal complex. The jury were not required to credit the testimony of the defendant, and the doctor had never examined the deceased, and did not personally know whether or not she had such suicidal complex. Counsel for appellant argue that the defendant was too drunk to have killed the deceased; that the deceased surely would have offered some resistance if defendant had assailed her, but that on the contrary the tidiness of the room showed there was no struggle of any kind; that the rifle with which she was shot was a short barreled rifle, enabling her to easily shoot herself; That in view of the course of the bullet she must have been standing when she was shot, and that the situation of the bed was such that no room was left for the person back of the carbine stock, enabling him to shoot her (which we doubt). No one knows how drunk the defendant was, though he was doubtless drunk to some extent. The theory of counsel for defendant is purely speculative. She may not have had, and probably did not have, an opportunity to show any sort of resistance. Dr. Stack testified that the deceased was probably killed between four and five o'clock of the afternoon of February 20. She was found lying on her back with most of her body on the bed, and with the gun lying on her right. The doctor testified that she had been turned over, and had been lying on her face at least thirty minutes. She could have been turned over only by the defendant, so that he waited at least thirty minutes before he reported her death. The total length of the gun with which she was shot was 37 1/2 inches. The distance from the foot of the bed to the door was about four feet. There was space enough, with the defendant standing in the doorway to have shot her. As correctly argued by the state, and contrary to the contention of defendant, it would have been most difficult for the deceased to have shot herself, although, it is true, not impossible. The gun was kept in defendant's separate room, not in the room where the deceased was shot. The defendant was in his own room and it is not likely the deceased went into that room to get the gun during that time. The bullet was shot in a horizontal direction, so that the deceased must have been standing when she was shot. It is highly probable that if she had shot herself, she would have fallen in her tracks, as the state argued, falling to the floor, with the gun also on the floor. Both the gun, as well as the body were probably moved after the deceased had died. We have examined the map and exhibits in evidence, as well as the testimony, with care, and without going into further details, we think it clear the jury were fully justified in finding that the deceased did not kill herself. The defendant and the deceased were the only persons about the premises when the deceased was killed, so it is clear the jury were fully justified in finding that the defendant did the killing. That is further corroborated by the fact that no finger prints were found on the gun. The deceased could not have wiped them off. The inference is justified that the defendant did so.