Hays v. State, 4941

• Decision Date: 01 June 1959
• Docket Number: No. 4941,4941
• Parties: Arthur HAYS, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 520

324 S.W.2d 520

230 Ark. 731

Arthur HAYS, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. 4941.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

June 1, 1959.

James E. Hyatt, Jr. and Omar F. Greene, Osceola, for appellant.

Bruce Bennett, Atty. Gen., By: Thorp Thomas, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

McFADDIN, Justice.

Appellant, Arthur Hays, was convicted of first-degree murder for the homicide of Justus Edrington, and sentenced to death. This appeal ensued. The motion for new trial contains three assignments; and we also consider every objection in the transcript, as is the rule in capital cases. Smith v. State, 205 Ark. 1075, 172 S.W.2d 248, 249. We group and discuss all the assignments and objections in suitable topic headings.

I. Sufficiency Of The Evidence. The deceased, Justus Edrington, operated a liquor store owned by Melvin Lapides, in Osceola, Arkansas. Sometime between 9:30 and 10:30 on the night of Friday, August 8, 1958, Will Henderson went into the store to make a purchase, and found Edrington either dead or dying. The law enforcement officers were called and began investigations. Edrington was in the back room of the store, sitting on the floor and leaning against the back door, which was locked. He had been beaten with a granite rock and a railroad spike; and his head and face were covered with blood. Edrington was immediately taken to the local hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival. He might have been dead at the time Henderson discovered him.

Someone had not only wounded Edrington, but had also robbed the liquor store: the cash register was open, another money repository was open, and several small silver coins were scattered on the floor. It was reasonably inferred that the culprit had entered and departed through the front door; that a terrible struggle had taken place; and that the robbery had been committed after the struggle, since there was blood on the cash register. Pictures taken the same night disclosed a very gory scene. The admissibility of these and other pictures will be discussed in Topic IV, infra.

An immediate search was started to locate the culprit; money had been spent with blood on it; the source was traced to appellant; and he was arrested Monday night, August 11, 1958, and placed in jail. The next day, August 12th, appellant was taken before the Osceola Municipal Court for preliminary trial, was formally charged with the murder of Justus Edrington, and entered a plea of guilty. This will be discussed in Topic III, infra. The appellant went with the officers to the scene of the crime and told them just how he struck and beat Edrington, committed the robbery, and then used the bloody money to buy an automobile. All of the furnished details were verified; and the bloody granite rock and railroad spike, used to beat Edrington, were identified.

Hays was sent to the Arkansas State Hospital for Nervous Diseases, under the provisions of § 43-1301, Ark.Stat.; and the results of the examination showed that he was 'without psychosis'. He was charged with first-degree murder committed while in the act of robbery (§ 41-2205, Ark.Stats.). Able counsel were appointed by the Trial Court to represent him, and they have vigorously prosecuted this appeal and have exemplified the fine tradition of the legal profession. The trial jury found the defendant guilty and fixed the punishment at death by electrocution. The evidence is amply sufficient to support the verdict. There remain questions, whether any errors were committed in the admission of the evidence, or in any other procedure in the course of the trial; and these we will now discuss.

II. Corpus Delicti. The appellant's counsel insist that the State failed to prove the corpus delicti; that is, they insist that the State failed to prove that Edrington died from the effect of a wound unlawfully inflicted by the appellant. Appellant's counsel argue that Edrington could just as well have died from a heart attack as from the assault that Hays made. The words, corpus delicti, mean the 'body of the crime'. The State must prove the corpus delicti, which means that the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt: (a) that the deceased was in fact killed; and (b) that the deceased came to his death by the act of someone other than himself. ¹

That Edrington died is established because both the doctor and the funeral director testified that they viewed his body. The mortician who prepared Edrington's body for burial testified that there were twenty-one wounds on the head which required the use of sutures. Some were straight cuts and some were triangular cuts. Dr. Fairley, who examined Edrington and pronounced him dead, stated that the wounds on Edrington's head were 'conducive to cause death', and that the wounds on the head were a producing cause of death and competent to produce death. On cross-examination the following occurred:

'Q. You don't know, whether or not, something other than the blows on the head produced death? A. Yes, I know.

'Q. How do you know, doctor? A. Because, he had the injury to produce death.'

And on re-direct examination this occurred:

'Q. Were the wounds on Mr. Edrington's head such as were calculated to produce death? A. Yes, sir.'

It was testified that the defendant admitted inflicting blows on Edrington with the granite rock and the spike. Certainly there was ample evidence to submit the question to the jury as to the cause of Edrington's death. Our leading case on corpus delicti is that of Edmonds v. State, 34 Ark. 720, decided in 1879. In that case, Chief Justice English said:

"In cases of alleged homicide, the proof of a corpus delicti involves that of the following points, or general facts: First, the fact of death, particularly as shown by the discovery of the body, or its remains; secondly, the identification of such body, or remains, as those of the person charged to have been killed; and, thirdly, the criminal agency of another, as the cause of the death. * * * "Criminal agency as the cause of death. A dead body, or its remains, having been discovered and identified as that of the person charged to have been slain and the basis of a corpus delicti being thus fully established, the next step in the process, and the one which serves to complete the...