Levi v. Com.

• Decision Date: 15 October 1965
• Parties: R. Gordon LEVI, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

Page 559

405 S.W.2d 559

R. Gordon LEVI, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

Oct. 15, 1965.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing April 22, 1966.

Royce Pulliam, Cynthiana, William H. McCann, Brown, Sledd & McCann, Lexington, for appellant.

Robert Matthews, Atty. Gen., George F. Rabe, Frankfort, for appellee.

HILL, Judge.

Appellant seeks a reversal of a verdict and judgment finding him guilty of voluntary manslaughter, and fixing his punishment at 15 years in prison. He contends (1) he was entitled to an instruction on self-defense and involuntary manslaughter, (2) the trial court committed error in answering a written question submitted by the jury during his absence, and (3) that he was entitled to a new trial on the ground one juror had expressed an opinion before the trial.

Appellant, age 65, six feet three inches tall, weighing 215 pounds, was charged with killing William Hoffler, a man between 70 and 75 years of age, five feet six inches tall, and weighing 135 pounds.

Apparently the appellant is a thrifty man from the evidence that he owns 60 houses, including a one or two story building with a basement, the scene of the alleged crime. Beds were rented in this building at the rate of one dollar per night for basement lodging and two dollars per night for beds on the first floor. This house is located on the appropriately named 'Pleasant Street' in Cynthiana, Kentucky.

Deceased 'signed in' for a bed February 11, 1964, and was found dead in his upstairs room the following day. During the night of the 11th and on the following day, about seven customers were lodged in the house. There were two women, one the daughter of appellant, and the other, according to some testimony, a Lesbian. There was considerable drinking also.

Dr. James T. McClelland, a pathologist, performed an autopsy and testified deceased had a deep laceration above the right eye, an abrasion over the right cheek and yet another laceration on the bridge of his nose, so that his nasal bones were 'in pieces'; that there was bleeding from these injuries, from which he concluded deceased received the foregoing injuries before his chest injuries. The doctor stated he applied pressure to the chest of deceased and was amazed to find there was no support. He found fractures of the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh ribs of the right side, and fractures to the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth ribs on the left side. The breastbone was fractured. The pleural cavity was filled with blood; the right atrium of the heart was ruptured and exploded, and all the blood spilled out into the chest cavity; the heart was squeezed against the backbone and had ruptured like a balloon; the liver was broken so that one-half of the left part was lying free. He testified deceased also had a ruptured groin; that the mouth of deceased contained upper and lower plates, the latter broken.

Appellant does not argue the circumstantial evidence was not sufficient to convict, but he says inasmuch as all of the evidence was circumstantial, he was entitled to an instruction on self-defense and involuntary manslaughter.

Under Criminal Law, 23A C.J.S. § 1190, the general purpose of instructions in criminal cases is thus stated:

'The sufficiency of instructions must be determined by the facts in each case. The purpose of instructions being to define, and direct the attention of the jury to, the legal principles applicable to the particular case, instructions should be full, clear, and explicit, giving to the jury all of the law so far as it relates to the issues proved or claimed to be proved, if such issues are sustained by any evidence or by any legitimate inference therefrom.'

Our question is whether there was any evidence or legitimate inference from the evidence that the crime was or could be classified as involuntary manslaughter. KRS 435.022 defining and providing a penalty for involuntary manslaughter is as follows:

'(1) Any person who causes the death of a human being by an act creating such extreme risk of death or great bodily injury as to manifest a wanton indifference to the value of human life according to the standard of conduct of a reasonable man under the circumstances shall be guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the first degree and shall be confined in the penitentiary for not less than one nor more than fifteen years.

'(2) Any person who causes the death of a human being by reckless conduct according to the standard of conduct of a reasonable man under the circumstances shall be guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the second degree and shall be imprisoned in the county...