Buatte v. United States

• Decision Date: 02 March 1964
• Docket Number: No. 18685.,18685.
• Citation: 330 F.2d 342
• Parties: Lester Alvin BUATTE, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

330 F.2d 342 (1964)

Lester Alvin BUATTE, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 18685.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

March 2, 1964.

Thelton D. Beck, Phoenix, Ariz., for appellant.

C. A. Muecke, U. S. Atty., and Richard C. Gormley, Asst. U. S. Atty., Phoenix, Ariz., for appellee.

Before POPE, MERRILL and BROWNING, Circuit Judges.

POPE, Circuit Judge.

The appellant was charged in an indictment returned in the court below with murder in the first degree in the death of Alice Secody, fourteen year old daughter of a Navajo sheep herder, on the Navajo Indian Reservation within the Indian country in the District of Arizona. (18 U.S.C. § 1111, applicable under 18 U.S.C. § 1152.) After trial to a jury, a verdict of guilty of murder in the second degree was returned; judgment was entered accordingly, and the appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment. From this judgment appeal is now taken.

The evidence of the Government in the case against the appellant tended to show that on Saturday, April 7, 1962, appellant was hitchhiking on Highway 89 in Arizona toward Salt Lake City, Utah. He left a truck on which he had caught a ride about two o'clock in the afternoon. He approached a tent which belonged to the father of the girl who was killed, and when he came to the tent he found there three children, Alice Secody, Dan Secody, aged ten, and Melinda Secody, aged five. The parents of the children were then absent. Defendant asked for a drink of water which Dan gave to him and defendant sat down in the tent. He then went across the tent to where Alice was sitting and placed his hand on her hip. She threatened to call the police. Defendant then went out of the tent, found a hammer and struck Dan on the head. Dan was then shot between the eyes and Alice shot in the head, as a result of which she died.

The evidence tended to show that the defendant then ran from the tent toward the highway and ran along the highway; he then flagged down a truck and rode on it a distance of several miles to a place called Gap Trading Post. The truck driver and a companion who was riding in the truck stopped at the trading post for coffee and defendant went in and had coffee himself after which he returned to the truck. At that time police arrived and he was placed under arrest. Subsequently the truck was searched and a pistol and bullets belonging to defendant were found in a tarpaulin on the truck where defendant had been sitting. The evidence was sufficient to warrant a finding that the bullet removed from the head of Alice was of a calibre fitting the pistol. Traces of human blood were found on defendant's clothing.

The defendant's testimony was that he had no recollection of the events accompanying the attack on the children and that the last thing he remembered was that he was standing in the middle of the road trying to get a ride.

Under the view which we take of this case the only specification of error which we need to note is the one concerning the claimed error of the court in denying the motion for judgment of acquittal made at the conclusion of all of the evidence. The motion was based upon the defendant's contention that, in view of the evidence of the defendant's insanity which was produced by the defense, the Government failed to make a case for the jury by proof that the defendant was legally sane at the time of the homicide.

The question of the defendant's insanity was raised by extensive testimony offered on behalf of the defense during the trial. Thus, Dr. Baker, a medical doctor and psychiatrist with a considerable background of experience in that field, who had examined the defendant four times between November 30, 1962, and December 17, 1962, the date of the witness's testimony, testified that at the time of the examination defendant was suffering from a severe form of schizoid personality, a condition of personality where the individual is very withdrawn, isolated, afraid of contacts with other individuals, at odds with normal daily living and who has some difficulty in distinguishing what is real from what is fantasy. Such a person has a tenuous hold on reality and from time to time will slip into psychosis, back and forth; he is given to psychotic episodes characterized by inability to distinguish between reality and imagination. Such episodes are a commonly known type of psychiatric illness. Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness or psychosis, it was testified.

On the examination of the defendant the doctor found several gaps in his memory the most prominent of which was the period on April 7, 1962, when the killing occurred. The period which the doctor testified to extended from 3:30 to approximately 5:30 in the afternoon of that date. The testimony was that a person suffering from such a psychotic upset would experience a loss of memory or amnesia. Results of tests which the doctor used in examining the defendant were such as to rule out the probability of defendant's feigning or pretending loss of memory. The doctor noted that before this period of loss of memory defendant was in an extremely anxious state; that he was terrified to find himself out on the desert facing the coming of night, and that the thought of isolation would serve to render him in a condition of near panic. Under such a condition of stress, a psychotic break of the kind described by the doctor would be likely to occur. It was the opinion of the witness that such a psychotic break, or state of insanity, was precipitated at the time when the events described in the indictment occurred. Such a person in that condition would have no appreciation of the nature and quality of his actions; he would have no ability to distinguish between right or wrong. It was the opinion of the doctor that the defendant did have such a psychotic break during that period, followed by amnesia.

Other expert testimony was produced tending to establish the same condition. A Dr. Keith, psychiatrist at the United States Medical Facility for federal prisoners at Springfield, Missouri, had examined defendant between June and September, 1962, at a time when defendant was committed there for the purpose of ascertaining whether he was mentally able to proceed to trial. He described defendant's mental condition as a schizoid personality disorder in much the same manner as Dr. Baker had done. A witness, Professor Smith, Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, a clinical psychologist with a record of clinical internship at Langley Porter Clinic at San Francisco and a post doctoral Fellow at the Menninger Clinic, had examined defendant shortly before the trial. He found defendant to be a "simple schizophrenic", an individual engaged in drastic withdrawal from contact with other people, and withdrawn from reality with thoughts governed largely by fantasy. In his opinion the condition was a chronic one of long standing. He found that the defendant had many memory gaps, and he was of the opinion that the defendant was unable to recall certain of the events of April 7, 1962. He was of the further opinion that defendant's memory was faulty, blurred and confused, that he was as schizophrenic on April 7 as he was at the time when the examination took place, and at that time the defendant would have no awareness of the rightness or wrongness of his act.

What confirms the strength of this testimony is the fact that the defendant had a record of service, both in the Navy and in the Army, showing severe mental impairment. The armed services records relating to these matters were received in evidence. They showed a history of erratic behavior characterized by absence without leave and repeated periods of hospitalization caused by apparent irrational behavior. The Naval record showed hospitalization after an absence without official leave and incapacity after drinking after-shaving lotion. These records showed complaints on his part of being continually ridiculed by others; that he was uncomfortable in crowds and given to day dreaming with a fear of his mind failing. A notation was made "Diagnosis changed to schizophrenic reaction, n. e. c." He was found unfit for duty and ordered transferred to the Oakland Naval Hospital for treatment. This occurred in the month of July, 1952. The following month his record showed "Impression: It would seem that this is basically a schizoid personality with superimposed borderline mental deficiency. However, further investigation is indicated. Shock work-up will be instituted." He was finally discharged from the Naval service. The defendant enlisted in the Army in 1955. On June 18, 1957, he was stopped when walking out the main gate of the Army Post at Fort Carson, Colorado, when he failed to heed a signal to stop. He would not speak and his identity was unknown. He was finally identified as the defendant. He was admitted to the hospital as a case of "hysteria type". The diagnosis at the Medical Treatment Facility at Fort Polk, La., was as follows: "Schizophrenic reaction, catatonic type, manifested by mutism, stupor, history of AWOL and wandering in recent weeks, dilapidated appearance, confused behavior; * * *." This was July 18, 1957. On August 1, 1957, electric shock treatment was begun and he was given a total of 14 treatments during that month. He exhibited a marked improvement thereafter. He was then discharged for disability and psychiatric impairment which incapacitated him for military service.

This account of the testimony relating to defendant's insanity is sufficient to disclose that the evidence on that point was substantial and reasonably impressive. When that evidence was received there was presented to the Government an obligation to meet the requirement stated in Davis v. United States, 165 U.S. 373, 378, 17 S.Ct. 360, 41 L.Ed. 750, as follows: "While it was true that every man is presumed to be sane, yet whenever by the testimony the question of insanity is raised then the fact...