Edwards v. People

• Decision Date: 29 August 1966
• Docket Number: No. 21603,21603
• Citation: 418 P.2d 174,160 Colo. 395
• Parties: Gaylord W. EDWARDS, Plaintiff in Error, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Defendant in Error.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 174

418 P.2d 174

160 Colo. 395

Gaylord W. EDWARDS, Plaintiff in Error, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Defendant in Error.

No. 21603.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

Aug. 29, 1966.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing Sept. 26, 1966.

Franklin C. Douglas, Denver, for plaintiff in error.

Duke W. Dunbar, Atty. Gen., Frank E. Hickey, Deputy Atty. Gen., James W. Creamer, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, for defendant in error.

PRINGLE, Justice.

Plaintiff in error, Gaylord Edwards, was found guilty by a jury of murder in the second degree of one Floyd E. Harper. He was thereafter sentenced to a term of fifteen to twenty-five years in the State Penitentiary. From this judgment he seeks review by writ of error. We will refer to the plaintiff in error as the defendant or by name and to the defendant in error as the People.

The record discloses that Edwards and his wife, then Lucy Patton, were married approximately six months before the homicide. At the time of the marriage, Harper had been living in Mrs. Patton's home for approximately a year and a half. Mrs. Patton had two daughters who were also living in the house. One of the daughters, testifying for the People, stated that Harper's relationship in the household was merely that of a boarder. The inter-relationship between the five people under one roof was amicable enough for the first five months. Edwards testified that he and his wife were getting along very well together during this time and that he was not particularly bothered by Harper's presence. In due time these circumstances changed. Edwards became dissatisfied with Harper's failure to pay his fair share of the rent and other expenses. Moreover, Edwards was suspicious that Harper's relationship with his wife was more than it ought to be. Edwards wanted Harper to move out and expressed this desire to his wife on several occasions. Apparently Mrs. Edwards did not share her husband's feelings and Harper continued to live with the Edwardses. After quarreling over the matter repeatedly, Edwards moved out of the house.

While they were estranged, Edwards regularly called his wife in an attempt to reconcile their differences. With this object in mind, Mrs. Edwards was to meet the defendant after work on October 23, 1963. When she failed to appear, Edwards proceeded to her residence. On the way, he stopped at the Bonanza Bar for a brief period of libation and conviviality with his friends. Throughout this activity Edwards made no mention of his domestic difficulties nor of his feelings one way or the other toward Harper.

One Woros, the bartender, testified that he had been keeping Edwards' rifle as a favor ever since he had moved out of the house. Edwards told Woros that he was going hunting the next day and that he would get his rifle in the morning. Woros insisted that if Edwards wanted his rifle he would give it to him then rather than be disturbed the next morning. Edwards agreed, loaded the rifle and placed it in his truck. Later that evening, about 6:30 p.m., Edwards tried to phone his wife. One of the daughters answered the phone but refused to call her mother, saying that she was tired and had gone to bed. After stopping at a neighbor's house, Edwards proceeded to his wife's residence. The testimony is in considerable conflict as to events which occurred after this point.

According to the eldest daughter, the defendant's wife had retired early and was sleeping in her own bed. Meanwhile, Harper and the two girls were watching television in another room. Some time later the two girls and Harper retired to their respective rooms. When the defendant admitted himself to the house, the wife awakened the eldest girl and expressed her concern because the defendant was in the house. It is important to note that, according to the girl's testimony, the wife was not sleeping with Harper when Edwards came into the house. On the other hand, Edwards testified that after he admitted himself to the house he went to his wife's bedroom and failing to find her there, he proceeded to Harper's room. There, he said, he found his wife as she was turning on the light. Edwards testified that his wife was in bed with Harper and was dressed in a slip or nightgown and that Harper was attired in pajama bottoms. The defendant told his wife that he wanted to speak with her. Thereafter, an argument ensued between the defendant and his wife in the kitchen. Within moments, the fray was joined in by the two girls and Harper.

According to Edwards, Harper stated that the defendant did not have any business in the house and that he, Harper, was taking care of things now. Edwards also related that Harper produced a knife and attacked him and cut him on the thumb. Edwards then testified that as all of the lights were turned out he was forcibly pushed out of the door. The girls, however, testified that the defendant was not forced from the house but that he left of his own accord and that they had no recollection of seeing a knife in anyone's hand. After the defendant was out of the house, the door was closed. The lock on the door was defective, and Harper apparently braced the door shut with his body. According to the defendant's testimony, the eviction from his own home was the final outrage. He went to his truck, removed his rifle and proceeded back to the door. Finding the door held closed against his efforts, Edwards fired once through the door. The eldest daughter testified that after Edwards left the house she observed him through a window which afforded a view of the back porch. From this vantage point, she watched the defendant as he retrieved his rifle, not from the truck but from a location next to the washing machine. Immediately following this, the first shot was fired. The bullet apparently hit Harper who then took refuge in the interior of the house. The door thus freed, Edwards entered the house and commenced firing at the noises made by the retreating Harper.

After the initial barrage, Edwards reloaded his rifle and fired several times at the already wounded Harper. A total of thirteen shots were fired, seven of which struck the deceased. The defendant left the scene, leaving Harper dead or dying on the floor. Edwards went to a neighbor's home, announced that there had been some trouble and that he thought he had probably killed a man. After Edwards called his attorney, he left the neighbor's house. The next morning members of the Adams County Sheriff's office found Edwards hiding in the basement of a vacant house. In rebutting Edwards' testimony that Harper had slashed him on the thumb with a knife, the People produced the testimony of the officer in charge of fingerprinting at the Adams County Jail. The officer specifically recalled that Edwards had no hand wounds at the time he was fingerprinted. The People also produced the testimony of a Dr. Troster who examined Edwards in jail for a swollen wrist. Troster stated that Edwards made no complaint of a knife would or any other injuries. Troster further testified that he certainly would have noticed and treated any knife wound on the thumb of the magnitude complained of by the defendant.

From the jury's determination of guilt based on the above facts, the defendant assigns the following as error:

1. The trial court erred in denying the defendant the opportunity to ask members of the jury upon voir dire concerning their ability to maintain adherence to the court's instructions if it should appear from the evidence that the defendant's wife and the deceased were carrying on an adulterous relationship.

2. The trial court erred in refusing to admit the testimony of the mother of the deceased as to her efforts to dissuade the deceased from living with the defendant's wife.

3. The trial court erred in not granting defendant's motions for judgment of acquittal at the close of the People's case on the charges of first and second degree murder on the ground that the evidence did not warrant such a verdict.

4. The trial court erred in the giving of numerous instructions as to murder, malice, the death penalty, life imprisonment and the use of the term 'abandoned' and 'malignant,' although the testimony did not justify their consideration.

5. The trial court erred in refusing to give the defendant's instruction pertaining to provocation.

6. The trial court erred in refusing to instruct on involuntary manslaughter although consideration of such would have been consistent with the testimony.

7. The trial court erred in not affording to the defendant a fair and impartial trial based upon the law and the evidence as reflected by inconsistent rulings sustaining objections by the People and in denying objections by the defendant.

We shall deal with the assignments of error in the order set forth above.

I.

The question which the defense proposed to ask the prospective jurors on voir dire is as follows:

'If it should appear that the wife of the defendant in this case and the deceased were unduly intimate, could you and would you, notwithstanding that fact, return a verdict based wholly and solely upon the evidence and the instructions of the court?'

The trial court refused to permit the question and the defendant assigns this refusal as error.

It is not the purpose of voir dire examination by counsel to educate the prospective panel of jurors to a particular theory of the case. Its purpose is rather to enable counsel to...