Lane v. Com., 771830

• Citation: 219 Va. 509,248 S.E.2d 781
• Decision Date: 22 November 1978
• Docket Number: No. 771830,771830
• Court: Supreme Court of Virginia
• Parties: Helen E. LANE v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia. Record

Page 781

248 S.E.2d 781

219 Va. 509

Helen E. LANE v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia.

Record No. 771830.

Supreme Court of Virginia.

Nov. 22, 1978.

Stephen C. Swain, Frederick T. Stant, Jr., Virginia Beach (Clark, Hofheimer & Stant, P. C., Virginia Beach, on brief), for appellant.

Robert H. Herring, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen. (Marshall Coleman, Atty. Gen., on brief), for appellee.

Before I'ANSON, C. J., and CARRICO, HARRISON, COCHRAN, HARMAN, POFF and COMPTON, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Defendant, Helen Elayne Lane, was tried by a jury on an indictment charging her with murder of her newborn child. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, and in accordance with the jury's verdict was sentenced to confinement in the State penitentiary for a period of five years.

Defendant contends that the evidence was insufficient to show that the child's death was caused by any criminal agency and that the trial court's instruction defining involuntary manslaughter was an improper statement of law.

The evidence shows that the defendant, who was 17 years of age and was to be married at home plate in a public ceremony in Metropolitan Park before a baseball game on May 9, 1976, was at home alone on May 8, 1976 when she began to suffer stomach pains. She associated the pains with constipation for which she had recently been treated. She decided to take a hot bath and, while soaking in the tub, felt the urge to use the toilet. While seated on the toilet seat, a "white bubble" emerged from her vagina and burst. Defendant then looked down and saw a baby's head protruding from her body. She moved to the edge of the toilet seat, and as the delivery process continued she removed the baby and cradled it as it came out. She noticed that the baby did not cry, was not breathing, did not move or open its eyes, and that it began turning bluish-purple. In an attempt to induce breathing, she turned the child up and spanked it on its bottom as she had seen this done on television, but the child did not respond. She then wrapped the infant in a towel, along with the placenta, which was still attached to the infant by the umbilical cord and laid it on her bed. Defendant then returned to the bathroom to clean herself and the bathroom. After accomplishing this, she placed the blood-soaked towels and a bath mat in a garbage pail. She then put the garbage pail with its contents and the baby into a large plastic garbage bag and tied it at the top.

As defendant was taking the garbage bag out of the house, her brother and mother arrived. When the brother asked defendant what was in the bag, she gave an evasive answer. Defendant placed the bag in her car and drove to Old Wolfsnare Road in Virginia Beach where she placed the bag under some trees off the side of the road.

The next day, defendant was married and she and her husband left on a short wedding trip. Presumably, the defendant did not tell anyone about the occurrences of the afternoon before.

On May 11, 1976 a 15-year-old boy discovered a green plastic garbage bag off the side of Old Wolfsnare Road. He punctured the bag with a long pole and the body of an infant, towels and a plastic pail fell out. The police were summoned. The name "Summerell", defendant's surname before marriage, was on one of the towels found at the scene. This led the police to the home of defendant's parents where defendant resided. At the defendant's home the police also found a distinctive piece of wrapping paper in an open garbage bag which matched the paper included in the contents of the green plastic bag found at the scene.

When the defendant and her husband returned from their trip, she was arrested and advised of her rights. At first, she denied knowing anything about the green garbage bag and its contents. Finally, defendant admitted that she gave birth to the baby in the bathroom of her parents' home on May 8; that the birth came as a shock because she did not know that she was pregnant until that time; that the child showed no signs of life; and that when she placed the garbage bag off the side of the road, she waited about five minutes to see if the baby was still alive.

At trial, the Commonwealth produced four medical expert witnesses, including Dr. Charles Springate, a forensic pathologist, who performed the autopsy; Dr. N. Turner Gray, a pediatrician and regional medical examiner, who examined the infant at the scene where it was found; and two obstetricians/gynecologists, Drs. D. L. Sarrett and L. L. Wasserman, Jr.

The medical testimony was lengthy and detailed. The child, described as being twenty inches long and weighing seven pounds, was considered to be a full term baby. There were no signs of violence, no congenital defects or abnormalities, and no obstructions of the breathing passages. The lungs were aerated, and three cubic centimeters of air were found in the infant's stomach. When the body was found it had not decomposed, indicating that an insufficient amount of microscopic organisms or bacteria had been ingested during respiration. The existence of a large quantity of meconium (a stool characteristic of newborn infants) which was passed after birth, and evidence of air in the child's lungs and stomach were the bases of the doctors' opinions that the infant took several breaths and that the child was born alive. However, none of the doctors testifying on behalf of the Commonwealth expressed an opinion how long the baby lived. Dr. Springate testified that babies were known to gasp or take in a few breaths of air and then stop breathing immediately after birth. Dr. Sarrett stated on cross-examination that to say the child died after being placed in the plastic bag would be pure speculation. All the doctors were of the opinion that death resulted from anoxia, a severe lack of oxygen, but they could not state the cause of death with any reasonable degree of medical certainty. There was no testimony that the child would have lived on its own and apart from its mother under the existing conditions of its birth.

Dr. Wasserman testified that some women do not realize they are pregnant until birth, and that he had known women who maintained that they didn't know they were pregnant at any time during pregnancy until labor commenced. When birth occurs under such conditions, the woman is "appalled and terribly frightened."

The defense called two medical experts, Dr. F. B. Presswalla, who at the time of the trial was Virginia's Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, and Dr. D. A. Lawrence, the defendant's physician. Dr. Presswalla testified that in his opinion the child...