Drysdale v. State, 74--548

• Decision Date: 16 January 1976
• Docket Number: No. 74--548,74--548
• Citation: 325 So.2d 80
• Parties: George W. DRYSDALE, Jr., Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 80

325 So.2d 80

George W. DRYSDALE, Jr., Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 74--548.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

Jan. 16, 1976.

Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, Leon St. John and Elliot R. Brooks, Asst. Public Defenders, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Robert B. Breisblatt, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellee.

OWEN, Judge.

Dispositive of this appeal is our conclusion that the State failed to establish the corpus delicti of the crime charged, second degree murder, independently of the defendant's inculpatory extra-judicial statements.

Appellant was charged with the shooting death of one Debra Crawford. He and Miss Crawford, engaged to be married, were living together at the time of the incident in the home of a Mr. Melvin Huntley. At about 1:00 a.m. on September 23, 1973, Huntley heard a shot while he was watching television in the living room. Appellant came running out of the bedroom into which he and Miss Crawford had earlier retired, went directly to the telephone and called the police for emergency assistance. Appellant stated on the phone that decedent had been shot when she reached under the bed for a gun. The gun was one of three owned by appellant, who was employed as a security guard. Both appellant and the decedent were familiar with guns and had, in fact, been target shooting that day. Huntley did not hear any screams or arguing prior to hearing the gun shot. When the police arrived appellant cooperated with them fully and agreed to accompany them to the police station in order to make a statement.

Through various expert and police witnesses, the prosecution also established that Miss Crawford's body was found lying face down across two beds which were drawn together; that her death was instantaneously caused by a gun-shot wound in the chest, inflicted at close range; that the bullet, which was never recovered, entered at a 45 angle and was discharged from a .44 magnum pistol; that the pistol, if half cocked, required 30 pounds of trigger pressure, and, if fully cocked, 3 to 3 1/4 pounds to discharge; that laboratory tests failed to identify any specific fingerprints on the gun; and that a swab test taken of appellant's hands to determine if he had recently fired a gun was inconclusive.

The trial court, overruling appellant's motion to suppress and his objection that the State had failed to establish the corpus delicti as a necessary predicate, admitted evidence of appellant's extra-judicial statements. In his first statement to the police on the morning of September 23, appellant related that he and the decedent had gone into the bedroom, talked for a while, and then decided to go to sleep. The decedent reminded appellant to put his gun, a .44 magnum pistol, which was under the bed, under the pillow as he usually did; appellant reached under the bed for the gun and in putting it under the pillow, it went off. However, after about an hour of interrogation, appellant began 'rambling;' he became very upset, started crying violently, and began asking for his brother. The officers ceased transcribing his statement but continued to question him. At this point, appellant gave a different version of the shooting: he stated that he became upset when the decedent began talking about her family, that she got off the bed, appellant went blank, and remembered only the explosion and flash of the gun.

At trial, after unsuccessfully moving for a judgment of acquittal at the close of the State's case, the appellant took the stand in his own behalf and testified to the facts essentially as given in the first of his two extra-judicial statements, except that, this time, he stated that both he and Miss Crawford reached for the gun and that he did not know whose hand was on the gun when it discharged. The jury found appellant guilty as charged and he was sentenced to ten-years' imprisonment.

There are two separate proof burdens upon the State with respect to the corpus delicti. Jefferson v. State, 128 So.2d 132 (Fla.1961): (1) at the conclusion of all of the evidence in any criminal case, the State must have established the elements of the corpus delicti of the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt. Jefferson v. State, supra; Hulst v. State, 123 Fla. 315, 166 So. 828 (1936); Lee v. State, 96 Fla. 59, 117 So. 699 (1928); (2) in those cases in which the satisfaction of this ultimate burden relies upon an admission or confession by the defendant, the State is required to establish the elements of the corpus delicti by Some independent proof before such admission or confession may be considered by the jury. Schneble v. State, 201 So.2d 881 (Fla.1967); Jefferson v. State, supra; Rowe v. State, 84 So.2d 709 (Fla.1956); Adams v. State, 153 Fla. 68, 13 So.2d 610 (1943); Keir v. State, 152 Fla. 389, 11 So.2d 886 (1943); Parrish v. State, 90 Fla. 25, 105 So. 130 (1925); Robbins v. State, 312 So.2d 243 (Fla.App.2nd 1975); Hester v. State, 310 So.2d 455 (Fla.App.2nd 1975); Sciortino v. State, 115 So.2d 93 (Fla.App.2nd 1959); 3 Wharton, Criminal Evidence, § 691 (13th ed. 1973).

Exactly what quantum of independent proof is required to meet this latter corpus delicti proof burden before an extra-judicial confession may be admitted into evidence is a troublesome question. The burden varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and anywhere from 'slight' to 'clear and convincing' proof may be required. See, Annot., 45 A.L.R.2d 1316 (1956). The Florida courts have not been consistent among themselves in defining the requisite quantum of proof with the result that at least three different standards have been articulated: 'At least some prima facie proof,' McElveen v. State, 72 So.2d 785 (Fla.1954); Keir v. State, supra; 'some additional substantial evidence,' Tucker v. State, 64 Fla. 518, 59 So. 941 (1912); LaSalle v. State, 187 So.2d 407 (Fla.App.3rd 1966); or evidence which 'tends to...