Court Opinion

ID: 9725015
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:25:10.417585+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:09.083341
License: Public Domain

Dissent
Jackson, J.
I am unable to agree with the conclusions and determination arrived at in the majority opinion and dissent thereto.
The evidence most favorable to the State, and the only evidence directly connecting appellant with the murder, comes from the testimony of the State’s witness, Dorothy Andrews, in whose apartment the decedent, Charles Willie Mays, met his death.
The majority opinion recites the following pertinent facts:
*560“The record shows that Dorothy Andrews admitted on the witness stand that she was thirty years of age, that she had been a prostitute since she was twenty, that she was a narcotic addict since eighteen or nineteen years of age; that she had never been employed since leaving high school, that she had never had a legitimate source of livelihood since high school days in 1949; that she had been convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in 1951; that she had been convicted of prostitution and obscene conduct in 1956 or 1957; that she had been convicted of public intoxication in 1955 and 1962; that she had been arrested for grand larceny in 1959.”
The testimony of David Jeter, an Indianapolis policeman, was that on July 2, 1962, he in company with other officers were called to the apartment of Dorothy Andrews to investigate the death of Charles Willie Mays. The officer testified they questioned Miss Andrews about what had happened and checked the apartment thoroughly. On cross-examination, Lieutenant Jeter testified that a hypodermic needle, a spoon, a cooker type utensil that dope addicts use, and a syringe were found in the apartment and taken into custody. He stated that he saw the articles in the couch and bedding. There was fresh blood on the needle.
The testimony of Lieutenant Jeter was corroborated by the testimony of Detective Sergeant Leroy Callahan who testified that he was in the apartment at the time a bloody hypodermic needle, a cooker and a syringe were found.
The witness, Dorothy Andrews, also testified that she was in the apartment when a police officer found a bloody needle. She stated that the needle was hers and that she owned a cooker used for fixing narcotics.
Dorothy Andrews also testified that she had not discussed the case with anyone that morning, i.e., the morning she testified. However, she did read her testimony of October 24th. She admitted that the questions and answers of October 24th had been supplied her by the prosecutor.
The appellant relies on the case of Sylvester v. State (1933), 205 Ind. 628, 187 N. E. 669, as authority to support his motion for new trial.
*561“The only evidence connecting appellant in any manner with the stolen automobile came from the mouth of a single witness. That witness, the admitted thief, admitted highway robber and admitted deserter from the navy, was, as to each of his material statements concerning appellant’s connection with the stolen car, directly contradicted by himself under oath by disinterested witnesses, by circumstantial evidence, and by physical facts. We are not unmindful of the rule that errors of fact are for the trial court and errors of law are for the court having appellate jurisdiction, nor are we oblivious of the rule that a conviction may be sustained supported only by the evidence of an accomplice, but along with these rules is another, equally as important, requiring substantial evidence to support each fact essential to authorize a finding of guilty. This last rule places the evidence before the court on appeal, not for the purpose of weighing it, or for the purpose of determining the facts when there is actual conflict, but for the purpose of deciding, as a question of law, whether or not there is substantive evidence in support of the required material facts essential to a conviction. It is not enough to sustain a conviction that the evidence, when given full faith and credit, may warrant a suspicion or amount to a scintilla. Sullivan v. State (1927), 200 Ind. 43, 47, 161 N. E. 265; Cleveland, etc., Ry. Co. v. Wynant (1893), 134 Ind. 681, 686, 34 N. E. 569.
“This court, for the past few years, has been confronted, as never before, with convictions resting entirely upon the testimony of criminals of the very worst type, and in a majority of these cases, before final disposition of them on appeal, our attention has been drawn to a petition for a writ of coram nobis based upon affidavits of the person or persons on whose testimony the conviction rested to the effect that their evidence given at the trial was wholly false and supplemented by a statement of alleged facts completely exonerating the defendant from criminality. In the instant case the reverse of the foregoing procedure took place below, but respect for the trust and the effect of an oath on the conscience of such a witness is the same. Experience admonishes us that convictions resting upon the testimony alone of witnesses of the character the one in this case is shown to have, should be carefully scrutinized, not only by the jury so instructed in this case, but by the court with the view of determining whether there was any substantial evidence before the jury to sustain each issuable fact. We use the word ‘substantial’ as meaning more than ‘seeming or imaginary.’ Whether the legally *562admitted evidence may tend to establish facts from which guilt may be reasonably inferred is a question of law for the trial court when presented by a motion for a peremptory instruction in favor of the defendant at the close of the state’s evidence, or at the close of the entire evidence, or by a motion for a new trial for insufficient evidence. The action of the court on any one of these motions may be saved and presented for review on appeal.”
The record in this case discloses that the witness, Dorothy Andrews, is an admitted narcotic addict, such addiction having commenced when she was eighteen or nineteen years of age and continuing at least until the 24th of October, 1968, when she testified in a Habeas Corpus proceeding in connection with this case. At that time she was being held in jail for violation of a subpoena. She admitted that she was under the influence of narcotics when she went to jail. At the time she testified at the Habeas Corpus hearing she was experiencing withdrawal symptoms. She was later sent to the Marion County General Hospital for treatment. This was the witness in whose apartment Charles Willie Mays came to his death by a gunshot would. The testimony of this witness is contradictory and inconsistent from time to time and at variance with testimony she gave at the Habeas Corpus hearing*.
The principle established in the Sylvester case, supra, is that a witness can be so disreputable that his credibility becomes a question of law for the court.
In the case at bar the uncontradicted facts are:
A. Charles Willie Mays was shot in the apartment of Miss Andrews;
B. Miss Andrews’ character is questionable to say the least;
C. Miss Andrews is an admitted narcotic addict of years standing;
D. Miss Andrews’ testimony implicating appellant in the death of Charles Willie Mays is completely uncorroborated;
E. That Miss Andrews and appellant were the only persons present in her apartment when decedent was shot.
*563In view of the facts and circumstances here existent the evidence is clearly insufficient to sustain the conviction. The judgment herein should be reversed, the cause remanded to the trial court with instructions to grant appellant’s motion for a new trial.
Note. — Reported in 217 N. E. 2d 840.