Court Opinion

ID: 9685654
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:55:38.836718+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:08.990280
License: Public Domain

PRICE, Presiding Judge
(dissenting).
Andy Welch, Jr., appeals from a conviction of second degree murder for the killing of his wife, Olivia Welch, by shooting her with a gun.
The-undisputed evidence shows that during an argument between defendant and ■ deceased, Olivia slapped Andy and ran in-: to the front room. Andy went in another room and got his gun. When Olivia ran from the room Andy “pushed the gun on her like that.” She ran out the back door .and into the pump house. Andy walked to the' potato house at the edge of the field .arid'waited until Olivia emerged from the pump house and started back in the house. When she started up the steps he shot her in the leg. The shooting occurred on September 7, 1968. Death occurred November 13, .1968.
When the state had rested its case in chief, defense counsel moved that the state’s -evidence be excluded for the failure to prove that the gunshot wound was the cause ■ of death. The motion was denied.
Dr. Jack Dozier testified deceased was brought to his office on' September 7, -1-968-. She "had""a gunshot wound in the- lower third of the femur of 'the- right' leg. Dr. Dozier referred her to DrrTullos-fór sür■gery.. She was admitted .to-the Thóiiíasvillé 'hospital" and 'sometime' later, was released'. Dr. Dozier saw her again on November 7, a week before she died. The leg had- not healed, but it was healing. She had a pulmonary embolus on the opposite side.
Dr. Dozier testified the cause of death was a pulmonary embolus, a blood clot that dislodged from he.r left leg and. lodged in her lung. The blood clot was caused by inactivity. Her inactivity was due to her inability to maneuver very well because of pain caused by the gunshot wound and the operation following it for the purpose of putting a pin in her leg.
On cross examination Dr. Dozier stated the blood clot probably started in deceased’s good leg, the left leg, which was not wounded by the shot.- There was no evidence of its having started in the wounded leg. Active people could have blood clots, usually there is inactivity of some sort related to it. There is really no definitely known scientific reason for a blood clot. It can be a combination of several factors — the viscosity of the blood, the slowing down of the blood flow and the concentration of the cells in the blood.
The doctor testified on redirect examination that Olivia Welch was his patient prior to September, 1968; that she was working, able to perform physical manual labor and he did not believe she had any blood circulation problem prior to receiving the gunshot wound.
Defense counsel insists the shot was not the cause of death; that the evidence failed to establish any causal connection between the wound and the death of Olivia Welch,' but. on the contrary showed that death, was due to an intervening cause.
It was the Opinion of the treating physician that deceased would not have sustained a' pulmonary embolus but' for the gunshot wound and the' poor physical condition which náturally followed. ' -
We have-said thé question whether'under'- all' 'the--circumstances 'death' -was - the re-Sult'óf- the: wound -inflicted by1 a defendant *664is one of fact to be determined by the jury. If there is any proof, direct or circumstantial, to establish the corpus delicti, the sufficiency of such proof is for the jury and not for the court. Gurley v. State, 36 Ala.App. 606, 61 So.2d 137; Cook v. State, 43 Ala.App. 304, 189 So.2d 595. There was sufficient evidence of causal connection to establish the corpus delicti. The weight of such evidence was for the jury. There was no error in denying defendant’s motion to exclude the evidence.
I would affirm.