Anderson v. State
| Decision Date | 05 January 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 37962,37962 |
| Citation | 248 Ga. 682,285 S.E.2d 533 |
| Parties | Genie W. ANDERSON v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Harry J. Fox, Jr., Public Defender, Perry, for Genie W. anderson.
G. Theron Finlayson, Dist. Atty., Perry, Michael J. Bowers, Atty. Gen., Atlanta, for the state.
Appellant, Genie W. Anderson, was found guilty of the murder of Hugh Christmas and given a life sentence. From the denial of her motion for a new trial, she appeals.
Appellant lived with the victim in Warner Robins. They had an argument Saturday night, November 8, 1980, after she had called a former boyfriend in Macon that morning and made plans to move in with him. Appellant told the victim he was too possessive and jealous and the marriage they had planned for next February would not work out. According to appellant, Christmas was trying to keep her from leaving by sitting on her, so she stabbed him with a paring knife.
She left the apartment in the victim's car, drove to Macon and spent the night with her former boyfriend, Allen Brown. The next evening the two returned to the victim's apartment and unsuccessfully tried to clean up the blood. They were going to put the victim's body in the trunk of his car and take it elsewhere, but they couldn't lift it into the trunk. Instead, they dragged it into a wooded area across the street. During the attempted cleanup, appellant said, "I know this is not right to say, but, I'm glad the son-of-a-bitch is dead; I hated his guts."
Appellant and Brown spent Sunday night together and she returned, alone, to Warner Robins early Monday morning. She went to a nearby motel and reported that she had been by the apartment and found blood everywhere. After a subsequent investigation by the police, during which suspicion soon focused on appellant, she admitted that she had stabbed Christmas, although she claimed to remember stabbing him only one time. Christmas' body had 75 stab wounds.
The doctor who performed the autopsy testified that in his opinion, Christmas was first stabbed in the shoulder from the rear. These wounds had a lot of hemorrhage, indicating the victim was alive when the wounds were inflicted. Then the victim turned around and was stabbed a number of times in the chest area. Many of these wounds penetrated the heart and the left lung; some also involved the liver and stomach. The wounds to the heart were fatal and the wounds to the lungs could also have been fatal, had Christmas not had the wounds to the heart. There were no defensive wounds as might appear on the arms of one parrying an attack, and the doctor concluded the chest wounds incapacitated Christmas very quickly. Christmas then fell, face down, to the floor, and 45 wounds were inflicted to the back, all close together, indicating little or no movement of the body during their infliction. The doctor testified that all 75 wounds appeared to have been made with the same knife.
(1) Appellant first contends the trial court erred in failing to charge involuntary manslaughter, misdemeanor grade, Code Ann. § 26-1103(b), as requested. However, we conclude Powell v. State, 130 Ga.App. 588, 590, 203 S.E.2d 893 (1974). See also, Johnston v. State, 232 Ga. 268, 206 S.E.2d 468 (1974); Hudson v. State, 146 Ga.App. 463, 246 S.E.2d 470 (1978); Teal v. State, 122 Ga.App. 532(4), 177 S.E.2d 840 (1970).
The jury was charged on voluntary manslaughter and self-defense. The court did not err in failing to charge involuntary...
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