Gaddis v. State, 5 Div. 520
| Decision Date | 07 October 1958 |
| Docket Number | 5 Div. 520 |
| Citation | 39 Ala.App. 630,106 So.2d 268 |
| Parties | Mattie Pearl GADDIS, alias, v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Appeals |
Wilbanks & Wilbanks, Alexander City, for appellant.
John Patterson, Atty. Gen., and Paul T. Gish, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Under an indictment charging murder in the first degree this appellant was found guilty of manslaughter in the first degree, her punishment being fixed at imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of five years.
The evidence presented by the State tended to show that on the afternoon of 8 September 1956, the appellant and deceased were at the home of Mansfield Newman, and went later to the home of the deceased.
About 6:15 P. M. the appellant returned to the Newman home and reported that the deceased was drunk and trying to kill himself.
Newman accompanied the appellant back to the home of the deceased. There he found the deceased lying on the porch of his house. He had a gash in the lower side of his chest, and his intestines were protruding from the wound.
Newman attempted as well as he could to replace the intestines. An ambulance was summoned, and the deceased was taken to the Russell Hospital in Alexander City. There he was attended by Dr. Hudnell, and was operated upon by Dr. Askin.
On 10 September 1956 the deceased died of a pulmonary embolism, which in the opinion of Dr. Askin resulted from the wound in his side.
Appellant was arrested in connection with the death of Kelly.
At first she stated she had inflicted the wound on Kelly with a butcher knife. In a later statement, reduced to writing and signed by her, she stated she had cut the deceased with an axe which she got off a wood pile in the back yard. She further stated that deceased had wanted her to go out with him. She refused and told the deceased he was drunk. At this the deceased became enraged and knocked her unconscious with a chair. When she regained consciousness the deceased again threatened to hit her with a chair. It was then she got the axe, reentered the house, and when deceased came on her again with a chair she cut him with the axe.
Appellant testified substantially to the same effect in the trial below.
Counsel for appellant argue that the cause of death was not established, and that Dr. Askin's testimony in this regard was hearsay.
The record shows that Dr. Askin, as a witness for the State, testified that he had operated upon the deceased, who died suddenly the following day from a pulmonary embolism; that he did not see the deceased after death, but that he and Dr. Hudnell, who had also attended deceased, agreed that the cause of death was a pulmonary embolism.
We do not see that Dr. Askin's testimony can be interpreted other than that he and Dr. Hudnell concurred as to the cause of the death of the deceased--not that he was basing his opinion upon what Dr. Hudnell had told him. Particularly is this true in the light of Dr. Askin's testimony that in his opinion the death of the deceased had resulted from a pulmonary embolism proximately caused by the chest wound.
Furthermore, no objections were interposed to any of Dr. Askin's testimony in this aspect. There is therefore nothing before us for review.
Counsel for appellant argues that the confessory and inculpatory statements of appellant were improperly admitted in that there was no prior proof of the corpus delicti. This contention is without merit.
In Spain v. State, 37 Ala.App. 311, 68 So.2d 53, 55, we stated:
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