Cook v. State, 8 Div. 11
| Decision Date | 16 August 1966 |
| Docket Number | 8 Div. 11 |
| Citation | 189 So.2d 595,43 Ala.App. 304 |
| Parties | Curtis S. COOK v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Appeals |
Smith & Moore, Guntersville, for appellant.
Richmond M. Flowers, Atty. Gen., and Paul T. Gish, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Curtis Cook was charged by indictment with murder in the second degree and convicted of manslaughter in the second degree. The jury fixed the punishment at twelve months at hard labor and a fine of $10.00. He was sentenced accordingly and after motion for new trial was overruled he appealed to this court.
The indictment charged that Cook 'killed Charles Holland by beating him with his fists, and by causing him to strike his head on the paved sidewalk, * * *.'
The indictment was not duplicitous, and was not subject to the ground of demurrer that two separate transactions were charged in the same count. Wesson v. State, 251 Ala. 33, 36 So.2d 361; Wall v. State, 16 Ala.App. 365, 77 So. 977.
The evidence for the state tends to show that Henry A. Parker, a policeman for the City of Guntersville, in response to a telephone call from defendant, went to the home of one John L. Perry, where he found the body of Charles Holland lying approximately nine feet from the back door. There was a porch about four feet wide and four feet long, with three steps on the east side and three steps on the west side. There was an iron railing on the south side, so that in going out of the door from the kitchen one could not walk straight ahead off the porch but would have to turn to the right or left. Going east from the bottom step on the east side of the stoop there was a small concrete walk running parallel with and adjoining the house. Deceased was lying face down approximately two feet from the sidewalk. He was wearing a pair of khaki pants and part of a left sleeve of a pajama top. Pieces of the pajamas were lying above his head. There was quite a bit of blood on the left side of his head and face, and when he was rolled over there was blood on the right side of his face from the eye down and some blood had run from his nose and down his chin. He had blood on his stomach and on the back side of his body around the shoulder blades.
Richard Adams, Marshall County Coroner, testified he had had formal education in the subjects of bacteriology, pathology, physiology and anatomy preparatory to his work as an embalmer. That in such profession and in conjunction with his duties as Coroner he had examined and observed a great number of dead bodies where there was a skull fracture and cerebral hemorrhage. He stated, without objection, that from his experience of sixteen to eighteen years as an undertaker, based upon his examination of the body, it was his opinion the cause of Charles Holland's death was a 'subarachnoid hematoma,' which is a hemorrhaging of the brain where a vessel or vessels in the brain have ruptured and the covering of the brain that holds it all together is filled with blood. There was a skull fracture extending from the left temporal region downward and into the base of the skull. This was the region where the hemorrhage was found. The swelling was all on the opposite side of the head. His eye was badly bruised. His lips were bruised and cut on the inside and his nose was broken. There was a striated redness in the area of the skull fracture on the left side of the head and just behind the ear and a portion of the upper ear lobe. No blood was coming from that part of the scalp. A large amount of blood was coming from his nose. A blood sample was taken from the body and turned over to Mr. Pruitt, a State Toxicologist. It was estimated that the deceased was 5 7 or 8 and weighed 135 or 140 pounds. He had on a pair of trousers with a pair of pajama pants under them, and the left sleeve of a pajama top.
The witness Parker was recalled to the stand and after a proper predicate was laid he testified that a few minutes after he arrived at the Perry house defendant made a statement in the presence of Mr. Rollings, Chief McGown and the witness, in which he said that when he came there deceased was in the kitchen and witness asked him to leave so he could clean up the place; that he and Mr. Perry were going to Kentucky and were to have gone that afternoon; that he hit Holland two or three times and took him to the door and put him outside; that Mr. Perry was in the bedroom on the bed and no one was there except himself, deceased and Mr. Perry.
The defendant was taken to police headquarters where he made a statement to J. F. Gardner, an Investigator for the State of Alabama, and Deputy Sheriff Elmer Henderson. This statement was renduced to writing and signed by defendant. It was introduced in evidence and appears in the record. The statement sets forth that defendant had gone to the home of John L. Perry to get him to go to Kentucky. When nobody answered his knock he opened the door and went in the house. Perry was lying on the bed in one of the bedrooms and a fellow that he later learned was Charles Holland was lying on the kitchen floor. Standing astride of the man on the floor, defendant pulled or shook him on the shoulder to awaken him. He raised his head and asked, 'Who in the Hell are you?' Defendant said, 'This is Curt, what's the trouble.' Deceased answered, 'None of your God Damn business.' The statement continues: ...
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...that cases such as Gurley v. State, 36 Ala.App. 606, 61 So.2d 137; Frazier v. State, 40 Ala.App. 67, 112 So.2d 212; or Cook v. State, 43 Ala.App. 304, 189 So.2d 595 control under the instant In addition to jurisprudential discussions in Hall, General Principles of Criminal Law (2d ed.), Ch.......
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...court. McCall v. State, 262 Ala. 414, 79 So.2d 51 (1955); McDonald v. State, 56 Ala. App. 147, 320 So.2d 80 (1975); Cook v. State, 43 Ala.App. 304, 189 So.2d 595 (1966)." Hollis v. State, 399 So.2d 935, 938 (Ala.Cr. In this case, the indictment charged the appellant with vehicular homicide ......
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Scott v. State
...evidence upon which the jury could find that death resulted from the shotgun would inflicted by the appellant. Cook v. State, 43 Ala.App. 304, 189 So.2d 595 (1966); Mitchell v. State, 43 Ala.App. 427, 191 So.2d 385 (1966); Gurley v. State, 36 Ala.App. 606, 61 So.2d 137 (1952); McCall v. Sta......
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Hollis v. State
...the court. McCall v. State, 262 Ala. 414, 79 So.2d 51 (1955); McDonald v. State, 56 Ala.App. 147, 320 So.2d 80 (1975); Cook v. State, 43 Ala.App. 304, 189 So.2d 595 (1966). Our review of the record convinces us that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence regarding the cause of George ......