Garraway v. State

• Decision Date: 05 October 1976
• Docket Number: 1 Div. 718
• Citation: 337 So.2d 1349
• Parties: Laura GARRAWAY v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 1349

337 So.2d 1349

Laura GARRAWAY v. STATE.

1 Div. 718.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

Oct. 5, 1976.

Joseph C. McCorquodale, III, Jackson, for appellant.

William J. Baxley, Atty. Gen., and Ellis D. Hanan, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

HARRIS, Judge.

Appellant was indicted for murder in the first degree. The jury found her guilty of manslaughter in the first degree and fixed her punishment at ten years imprisonment in the penitentiary. She was represented at arraignment and trial by retained counsel. She pleaded not guilty to the indictment. After sentence was imposed, she gave notice of appeal and her bond was fixed at $7,500.00. She is free pending appeal and is here represented by trial counsel.

The evidence for the State tended to show that on the night of September 13, 1975, appellant stabbed her husband with a butcher knife which caused his death. Appellant admitted cutting or stabbing her husband but claimed she did so in self-defense.

There was no motion to exclude the State's evidence on the ground the State failed to make out a prima facie case; there was no request for the affirmative charge, and no exceptions were reserved to the Court's oral charge to the jury. Appellant did file a motion for a new trial on the ground, among others, that the verdict was contrary to the great preponderance of the evidence in the case.

Deputy Sheriff Rowdy McGee of Clarke County, Alabama, testified that he and his partner, Deputy James Kidd, were on routine patrol on the night of September 13, 1975, and that they received a dispatch over their radio at 11:17 p.m. to go to 211 Boyle Street in the city of Jackson to investigate a stabbing. The message requested a policeman and an ambulance and the operator stated that an ambulance was already en route from Grove Hill. McGee said they were only one-half mile from the Boyle Street address when they received the message. As they were looking for 211 Boyle Street, they heard a woman calling to them from a house approximately 100 feet off the street. They pulled into the yard of the house where the woman was calling and learned that the woman was the appellant, Laura Garraway. McGee further testified that they got out of their car and approached the front porch and saw a man sitting on the top step of the porch and he was slumped in a forward position. The man was later identified as the deceased, Homer Garraway. He had blood on his arm and chest and he was breathing heavily. McGee further testified that appellant was standing in the doorway talking very loudly. He said that she had on a red nightgown and was barefooted.

McGee further testified that he was trying to talk to the deceased but had a difficult time doing so, because appellant kept talking in a loud voice. He stated that neither he nor the Deputy asked appellant any question but she voluntarily made the statement, 'I stabbed the _ _, and I wished I had killed the _ _.' McGee further stated that appellant appeared to be drunk, that she was holding on to the screen door and she was weaving and her speech was slurred. Appellant objected to the question that led to the answer that 'she appeared to be drunk' but the objection was not made until after the answer was given. This witness further testified he smelled the odor of alcohol on appellant's breath. McGee further stated that appellant had blood on the front of her gown but he did not observe any marks, cuts, bruises or injuries of any kind on appellant.

McGee further testified that an examination of the front room of the house revealed broken glass from a soft drink bottle and the glass in the front door was broken out. McGee stated that he and Deputy Kidd left the deceased on the front porch while they made their investigation and when they returned to the front porch, the deceased was lying down instead of being slumped forward. He appeared to be dead. At this point the Sheriff and Coroner of Clarke County were called to the scene of the homicide. The Sheriff took appellant into custody and carried her to the Jackson Police Department where a PEI test was given to her by Police Officer Van Dee. The results of this test were not stated to the jury.

The Sheriff testified that he was alone with appellant in the car on the way to the Police Department. He stated he was close enough to her to smell alcohol on her, and she was talking disconnectedly.

Deputy James Kidd testified to substantially the same facts as Deputy McGee except he stated that he did not go inside the house where the deceased lived. He stated he stayed with the deceased on the front porch until he was carried to the funeral home. He stated that appellant was talking in a 'drinking manner.' Appellant objected to the question that brought this answer, but the objection was made after the answer was given.

Mr. James L. Small, Assistant State Toxicologist, performed an autopsy on the deceased. Mr. Small's qualifications were admitted by the defense. He testified that in his opinion the deceased was five feet, five inches in height and weighed about 160 pounds. He took a blood sample and tested it for the presence of alcohol. He stated the blood alcohol level was 0.17 and this amount of alcohol indicated that the deceased was certainly under the influence of alcohol at the time of his death.

Mr. Small described the external wounds on the body of the deceased, showing that he was cut on his arms and elbow and that he had a bruise on the side of his head and there was a deep cut on the left upper chest. He stated that he did an internal examination and found that the wound to the chest entered the chest cavity and passed through the lung and the main vessel that comes off the top of the heart, the aorta. He said that the left lung cavity was filled with blood. He further stated that the depth of the wound to the chest was approximately four inches. He rendered an opinion as to the cause of death, stating that death was due to bleeding and trauma associated with a stab wound to the chest inflicted by a cutting instrument. He further stated that this stab wound was consistent with having been made by a butcher knife.

Appellant testified in her behalf. She stated that she was 44 years of age and that the deceased was 63 years of age at the time of his death and that they had been married 20 some odd years. She further testified that on the day of the homicide her husband came home around 5:00 p.m. and he brought a pint of vodka or gin and a six-pack of beer and started drinking. She stated that the deceased started an argument with her on the front porch of the house and cursed her; that she left the front porch and went to the kitchen in order to get away from him, but he came back to the kitchen and continued to curse her. He then grabbed her and beat her with his fists and kicked her in the stomach, and the deceased then stabbed her with a pocketknife in her leg and she threw hot dish water on him. She further testified that the deceased picked up an ax and started to hit her with it but did not, but he did throw a bottle at her which broke and glass was scattered in the front room of the house. According to her testimony the deceased then ran out of the front door to the house and she locked the front door to keep him from coming back in. The deceased broke the glass out of the front door with a stick and reached inside and unlocked the door and he came to her with a stick of wood and started beating her. She testified that he knocked her down near the sink and threatened to kill her and that in an effort to protect herself, she grabbed the knife from a drawer beside the sink and cut and stabbed the deceased. That after the...