Hutchinson v. State, 335

• Decision Date: 28 March 1958
• Docket Number: No. 335,335
• Citation: 102 So.2d 44
• Parties: Earl F. HUTCHINSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 44

102 So.2d 44

Earl F. HUTCHINSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 335.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

March 28, 1958.

Rehearing Denied April 25, 1958.

Edward W. Starr, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

Richard W. Ervin, Atty. Gen., and George R. Georgieff, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

BIRD, JOHN U., Associate Judge.

The appellant was indicted on the 16th day of January, 1956 for murder in the first degree of Lydia Hutchinson in Palm Beach County and placed on trial, which resulted in a mistrial; and on the 4th day of June, 1956 the case was retried and resulted in a conviction of murder in the second degree and defendant was sentenced to the State Prison.

The homicide is shown to have taken place about 3 A. M. on the 4th of January, 1956 at the home of the parties shortly after they came from the steak house where Mrs. Hutchinson was employed. Both had been drinking moderately.

About 5 P. M. of that date the appellant called a friend and told him that he had been shot by his wife, who had then shot herself, and he asked that the officers be notified. The officers arrived at the home shortly after that and found the appellant lying on the bed, very bloody, with a severe wound in the face and Lydia Hutchinson sitting in a chair apparently asleep, but dead. The appellant at that time stated, among other things, that when he and his wife arrived at home that morning he went to the kennel to care for the dogs which they were then keeping, and that in about ten minutes he entered the house when a voice, which he took to be his wife's, spoke to him and he was shot; that he immediately became unconscious and so remained except intermittently until the late afternoon, when he was able to reach the telephone and notify his friend. The appellant was taken to the Good Samaritan Hospital, where upon examination it was found that he had been shot in the cheek, the bullet apparently entering from the corner of the jaw and coursing upward through the cheek and between the ear and eye. A 30-caliber rifle was found on the floor in the room near the body of Lydia; also two expended shells were found, one on the floor and the other in the chamber of the rifle, and two unexpended shells in the magazine. One of the bullets passed through the ceiling in the room and the roof directly above, indicating a vertical course and apparently was the same that passed through defendant's cheek. The other bullet apparently took a horizontal course, entered the body of Lydia Hutchinson close to the navel, passing through the right lobe of the liver, in front of the gall bladder and into and through the duodenum, severing the vena cava, which is the largest vein in the body located near the spinal column, passed through the spinal column in the region of the second lumbar vertebra and came to rest in the padding between the back of the chair and the body. This bullet also passed into and out of the little finger of her right hand. When the body was removed the bullet fell to the seat of the chair. Powder burns were found on or around the wound of the defendant, but none on the wound or clothing of the deceased.

There were other facts and circumstances surrounding the homicide shown, but which we deem unnecessary to elaborate here.

It appears from the record in this case that the appellant-defendant and Lydia Hutchinson decedent lived somewhat tempestuously as husband and wife from sometime in 1954 to her death on the 4th day of January, 1956.

On the early morning of December 6, 1955, Lydia Hutchinson appeared at the home of Doris Lee Sullivan and her husband, which was situated across the street or road some six or seven hundred feet from the Hutchinson home, seeking help and protection. She was without shoes and clad only in a robe. She was apparently highly hysterical and in great pain, and stated to Mrs. Sullivan that the appellant had just forcibly stuffed red pepper into her vagina. Judge Carry, Justice of the Peace, was called and when he arrived with an officer a peace warrant was issued for appellant upon affidavit of decedent and he was arrested, carried to jail and later released on bond. Lydia was carried to a doctor for treatment. After one or two trips to the Justice of the Peace Court, at which times the defendant did not appear, the decedent withdrew the charge, and shortly...