Campbell v. Com.
| Citation | 194 Va. 825,75 S.E.2d 468 |
| Decision Date | 20 April 1953 |
| Docket Number | No. 4043,4043 |
| Parties | JOHN B. CAMPBELL v. COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA. Record |
| Court | Supreme Court of Virginia |
Wayt B. Timberlake, Jr., and Philip Lee Lotz, for plaintiff in error.
J. Lindsay Almond, Jr., Attorney General and Thomas M. Miller, Assistant Attorney General, for defendant in error.
This case is before us upon a writ of error to a judgment of the Circuit Court of Augusta County entered on February 1, 1952, whereby, following the verdict of a jury finding him guilty of murder in the second degree, John Brooks Campbell was sentenced to twelve years confinement in the penitentiary.
The assignments of error relied upon by the accused pose three questions for decision:
1. Did the lower court err in permitting the introduction of, and testimony concerning, the oral and written confessions of the accused?
2. Did the lower court err in holding that there was sufficient evidence to prove the corpus delicti?
3. Did the lower court err in permitting the sheriff of Augusta county to remain in the court room after the motion to exclude witnesses had been granted?
In order properly to consider these questions it will be necessary to detail the facts and circumstances surrounding the crime.
The accused, John B. Campbell, a man 44 years of age, had spent his entire life in a remote mountainous section of Augusta county, where he completed the sixth grade in school. He worked for 27 years prior to this happening as a laborer for a cement company. Campbell had been twice married. His first wife, whom he married in 1932, died in 1947, leaving four children: Louvenia, Sylvia Jean, Mamie and Johnny. In 1948 he married Catherine Cash and had two children by this marriage, aged two years and one year, respectively. The home of the accused was approximately 100 yards from the home of his father, Nelson Campbell.
At the time of the alleged crime Nelson Campbell, his wife, Lucinda Campbell (mother of the accused), a blind brother of the accused, and Sylvia Jean, the second daughter of the accused, were occupying the Nelson Campbell house. The accused, his wife, and the other five children were living in their home. The house was small, having three rooms downstairs and one large room or loft upstairs. The accused, his wife, and the youngest child occupied one room on the first floor, while Louvenia (16 years of age) and the two year old child occupied the other downstairs room. The remaining downstairs room was used as a combination kitchen and dining room. Mamie and Johnny occupied the loft.
Louvenia attended high school in Craigsville, being in the second year. Several witnesses testified that they understood Louvenia was pregnant and had given birth to an illegitimate child on or about February 7, 1951. During the afternoon of February 22, 1951, a dog belonging to Nelson Campbell brought the head of a baby to the barn. Nelson Campbell reported this to his wife, who took the baby's head from the dog and immediately sent word to the authorities.
At the time of the discovery of the baby's head John Campbell had not returned from work. Upon his arrival he was informed by his parents of what had taken place. Later that afternoon Deputy Sheriff Sours appeared in response to the message sent by Mrs. Nelson Campbell and took the head of the baby for examination. That same evening Dr. Charles W. Schiffert, county coroner, examined the baby's head in his office and concluded that it was the head of a full-term baby, well developed and normal in every respect; that the child had been born a week or ten days before its death; that it had been dead two or three days, and that the head had been severed from the body by a sharp instrument. Duputy Sheriff Sours, Sheriff Shaver, and Dr. Schiffert came to the Campbell home later that evening and there questioned various members of the family, including the accused, who stated that he knew nothing about the matter.
The following day, February 23rd, the officers searched the Campbell property for the body of the baby, and on Saturday, February 24th, Deputy Sheriff Sours came by and took Louvenia and Sylvia Jean to Staunton. Soon after their departure John Campbell and his father, Nelson Campbell, went to Staunton and proceeded to the office of the Commonwealth's attorney, where the girls had been taken for questioning.
About 5:00 p.m. on February 24th Sergeant Gaunce of the Virginia State police and Sheriff Shaver arrested the accused and placed him in jail. No warrant was issued at the time but he was told that he was being held as a material witness on suspicion of murder. While in jail the accused was twice questioned by Sergeant Gaunce and Sheriff Shaver. On each occasion Deputy Sheriff Sours was present. When questioned Campbell maintained his innocence and denied any complicity in the matter. He contended that he was unaware of the pregnancy of Louvenia and did not know that she had given birth to the baby in their home.
On March 1st, the accused was taken to his home by State Trooper Collier, where he found Sergeant Gaunce, Sheriff Shaver, Deputy Sheriff Sours, Deputy Sheriff Kent and the Commonwealth's attorney assembled. Catherine Campbell, wife of the accused, who had been taken into custody, was also present. Sergeant Gaunce and Trooper Collier took the accused into the woods near his home in search of the child's body. The accused says that at that time he was threatened by the officers and told it would be better for him to admit he had participated in the crime. This statement was denied by both Collier and Gaunce.
The accused was brought back to the house and was told by Sergeant Gaunce that his wife had described how the baby had been killed. Whereupon the accused admitted his part in the crime and re-enacted the part played by him, as later set out in the written confession.
On the way back to jail from the scene the parties stopped at a service station where the sheriff provided soft drinks. Here the accused spontaneously confirmed the confession previously made and said that 'he had told the truth about it, and that he felt a lot better, that he thought he would be able to get some sleep * * * that he felt like a different man.'
On March 1st a formal warrant charging the accused with murder was duly served upon him. On March 2nd the accused made a written confession in question and answer form, signing each of the five pages thereof. The caption of the confession reads:
The material part of the confession follows: Campbell stated that he was employed at the time of the crime by the Lehigh Portland Cement Company and had been so employed for 26 years; that Louvenia, his oldest child, 16 years of age, became pregnant and gave birth to an illegitimate baby girl on the night of February 6, 1951, at their home; that no doctor was present; that his wife, Catherine, attended Louvenia; that he saw the baby the following morning (February 7); that about 5:00 o'clock on the evening of February 14th he and his wife, Catherine, killed the baby; that at the time of the murder Louvenia was at the home of her grandparents, milking, that he had never told Louvenia of their intention to kill the baby; that the baby was killed at the woodpile by cutting its head off with an axe; that he carried the baby from the house to the woodpile, it being dressed in a white gown and diapers, and was in a paper poke, with its head sticking out; that he held the baby across the chopping block, face up, while his wife, with one stroke of the axe, chopped its head off; that after killing the baby he went back to the house and his wife took the body and buried it; that when Louvenia returned from milking she asked where the baby was and he told her not to worry, that it was gone, that they had killed it; that they did not tell her how the baby had been killed; that when he told Louvenia she cried and lay down on her bed; that Louvenia told the other children that the baby had been killed; that he did not know where his wife buried the baby; that he killed the baby because he could not support it; that no one was implicated in the crime other than his wife and himself; that when Deputy Sheriff Sours came for the baby's head they decided to tell that the baby had been born dead and that Louvenia had disposed of it without their knowledge; that he did not think his wife knew where the baby's body was; that he thought the dogs had eaten all except the head.
The confession concludes: ' The confession is signed by the accused and witnessed by Sheriff Shaver, Deputy Sheriff Sours, and Sergeant Gaunce.
The first assignment of error challenges the action of the trial court in permitting the introduction of the oral confessions of the accused and the detailed written confession. It is contended that the confessions should have been excluded because the arrest of the accused was illegal and because 'the accused was held in custody, amounting to solitary confinement' until he confessed, all of which tended to show that the confessions were brought about by coercion and compulsion which rendered them invalid and inadmissible in evidence entirely aside from the question as to whether actual physical mistreatment was received by the accused and whether promises and inducements were made to him.
The burden is upon the Commonwealth to prove that extra-judicial confessions are...
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