Gilder v. State

• Decision Date: 19 November 1963
• Docket Number: No. 22259,22259
• Citation: Gilder v. State, 133 S.E.2d 861, 219 Ga. 495 (Ga. 1963)
• Parties: Harley R. GILDER v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

Page 861

133 S.E.2d 861

219 Ga. 495

Harley R. GILDER v. The STATE.

No. 22259.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Nov. 19, 1963.

Joseph H. Briley, Dublin, for plaintiff in error.

W. W. Larsen, Jr., Sol. Gen., Dublin, Eugene Cook, Atty. Gen., Rubye G. Jackson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Atlanta, for defendant in error. Syllabus Opinion by the Court

CANDLER, Justice.

Harley Gilder was indicted in Laurens county for the murder of Doris Gilder, his wife. The indictment alleges that he killed her by shooting her with a pistol on June 23, 1962. He filed a plea of not guilty and was convicted of the offense charged with a recommendation of mercy. He moved for a new trial on the usual general grounds and amended his motion by adding five other grounds, all of which were approved except one. His amended motion was overruled and the exception is to that judgment. Held:

1. The defendant's plea of not guilty raised the question of his mental ability to commit the offense of murder at the time he allegedly shot and killed his wife. On this issue the evidence was voluminous and conflicting but the jury was amply authorized to find from it, as they did, that the accused at the time of the alleged homicide had sufficient mental capacity to distinguish between right and wrong relative to the act charged against him and such proof shows criminal responsibility. In this connection, see Griffin v. State, 208 Ga. 746, 69 S.E.2d 192.

2. The defendant contends that the court erred in denying him a new trial because the evidence was insufficient to prove the corpus delicti and that he killed the person for whose death he was indicted and convicted. This contention cannot be sustained. Ralph Cox, a deputy sheriff, testified that the accused, on the night of the killing, freely and voluntarily stated to him that he kept his pistol in his room; that his wife (the deceased) had cleaned the shouse that day; that he had dropped some cigarette ashes on the floor; that they got into an argument about it; and that he shot and killed her. There is also evidence in the record showing that the accused and his wife were alone in their home when the homicide occurred during the night of June 23, 1962; that the door to their home was locked when the father of the accused and a neighbor came to his home in response to a call the former had received concerning some trouble which had just occurred there; that the accused unlocked the door and let them in; that the body of the deceased was at that time lying on her bed in back room of the home; that she had been shot in the face with a pistol; that no pistol or other weapon was found near her body or in her room; that the accused was either intoxicated or under the influence of drugs when the sheriff reached his home soon after the homicide; that the accused attempted to kill himself after his father called the sheriff and just before the latter entered his home; that when a brother of the deceased came to the home of the accused on the night of the homicide and soon after it occurred, he first viewed the body of his sister and then 'looked' at the accused and the latter raised his shirt and put his hand on the butt of his pistol, a .38 caliber pistol which his father later took from him and handed to the sheriff on his arrival; and that the pistol which was taken from the accused by his father was later delivered to Dr. Herman Jones, Director of Georgia's Crime Laboratory for examination and ballistic tests. Dr. Jones, as a witness for the State, also testified that he examined the body of the deceased; that her death was caused by a bullet fired from a .38 caliber pistol which struck her in the face near the cheek bone and which passed through her brain and lodged in the back of her head; that he removed the bullet from her head and from tests he made with the pistol delivered to him, it was his opinion that the bullet he removed from her head was fired by such pistol. In Richardson v. State, 207 Ga. 373(1), 61 S.E.2d 489, and again in Davis v. State, 211 Ga. 76, 84 S.E.2d 46, it was held that 'A confession of guilt, freely and voluntarily made by the accused, is direct evidence of the highest character and sufficient to authorize a verdict of guilty on a charge of murder, when corroborated by proof of the...