Court Opinion

ID: 9687264
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:20:42.045164+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:25.222146
License: Public Domain

R. B. Burns, J.
The defendant was convicted by a judge sitting without a jury of first-degree murder. MCLA 750.316; MSA 28.548.
The only argument of significance in this appeal concerns the defendant’s assertion that since evidence on the element of "premeditation” was totally lacking, first-degree murder could not be proven. Premeditation can be inferred from the circumstances surrounding a killing. People v Wolf, 95 Mich 625 (1893); People v Griner, 30 Mich App 612 (1971); People v Morrin, 31 Mich App 301 (1971). A review of the evidence discloses its sufficiency to support the first-degree murder conviction.
Joyce Montgomery observed the defendant beating the victim, Tingle, with a pipe across his back and buttocks as Tingle lay face down on the floor. Upon her request defendant surrendered the pipe. Joyce hid the pipe in the bathroom and when she returned she observed the defendant stabbing Tin*758gle with a screwdriver. She told defendant that there was no point in killing Tingle and requested that he surrender the screwdriver. He gave Joyce the screwdriver and she took it into the bedroom. When she returned from the bedroom defendant was striking Tingle with a chair.
Shirley Perryman testified that before Horn struck Tingle with the chair, Tingle escaped momentarily and ran to the door. Defendant caught him and brought him back into the apartment. He then struck Tingle with the chair. The chair broke from the force of the impact and defendant continued to beat Tingle with part of the chair. Tingle was moaning.
Joyce then observed defendant with a knife in his hand. She grabbed his wrist and he gave her the knife.
The defendant then dragged Tingle from the apartment and was gone five to ten minutes.
A short time later Fuzzell Perryman observed defendant in the furnace room and half a human body sticking out of the furnace. When the police arrived, they found human remains in the ashes.
The defendant was not so impassioned that he could not think of a method to kill the victim and dispose of his remains at the same time. Sufficient evidence exists to support the inference that the victim was still alive when he was shoved into a furnace. The attacks on the victim were made with a variety of weapons. On at least two separate occasions, the defendant was "cool” enough to politely hand over his weapons before continuing his attack.
It is not this Court’s function to replace the trier of fact’s opinion with its own. Where the factfinder’s opinion stems from "reasonable” inferences, *759then we must affirm. People v Moore, 306 Mich 29 (1943); People v Mosden, 381 Mich 506 (1969).
The evidence in this case is sufficient to render the inference of premeditation a reasonable one.
Affirmed.
J. H. Gillis, J., concurred.