People v. Schiers, Cr. 6063

• Decision Date: 12 May 1958
• Docket Number: Cr. 6063
• Citation: 324 P.2d 981,160 Cal.App.2d 364
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Wallace LeRoy SCHIERS, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

Page 981

324 P.2d 981

160 Cal.App.2d 364

The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Wallace LeRoy SCHIERS, Defendant and Appellant.

Cr. 6063.

District Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 3, California.

May 12, 1958.

Hearing Denied July 11, 1958.

Wallace LeRoy Schiers, in pro. per.

Edmund G. Brown, Atty. Gen., Lynn Henry Johnson, Deputy Atty. Gen., for respondent.

SHINN, Presiding Justice.

In a jury trial, Wallace LeRoy Schiers was convicted of the second degree murder of his wife, Lillian R. Schiers. He appeals from the judgment and the denial of his motion for new trial.

The conviction was based upon evidence of the following facts: Mr. and Mrs. Schiers were married in 1952. They resided in a single-story two-bedroom house in Granada Hills. Defendant, a major in the air force reserve, was employed as an electronic assembly supervisor at the Bendix aviation plant in San Fernando Valley. His wife was a member of the Granada Hills Women's Club and took a prominent part in club activities.

On the morning of February 12, 1957, Mrs. Schiers had an appointment to meet a Mrs. Butcher and a Mrs. Peterson at the women's club. Alarmed by her failure to keep the appointment, the two ladies went to the Schiers' residence at 10914 Gaynor Street. They rang the bell and knocked on the door, but no one answered. Mrs. Peterson went to the rear of the house and entered through the back door, which was unlocked. Upon opening the door to Mrs. Schiers' bedroom, Mrs. Peterson discovered her nude body lying on the floor beside the closet. Mrs. Schiers had been brutally beaten; there were thirteen horrible wounds and lacerations on her face and head. The cause of death was subsequently established as multiple fractures of the skull with intracranial hemorrhage and cerebral contusions. The murder weapon was never found, although Mrs. Schiers' mother testified that two small star-shaped glass candlestick holders and a heavy ornamental champagne bottle were missing from the house about a week after her daughter's death.

An investigation by Los Angeles police officers called by Mrs. Butcher disclosed no signs of a struggle anywhere in the house. None of the outside doors or windows had been forced, although, as we have said, the rear door was unlocked. The only fingerprints in Mrs. Schiers' bedroom were those of the deceased and there were no fingerprints elsewhere in the house that could not be identified. Mrs. Schiers' purse, containing a check and some cash, was in the kitchen; her gold wristwatch was lying on the dresser in her bedroom.

Leland V. Jones, a police lieutenant assigned to the Scientific Investigation Division, arrived at the scene at 1:30 p. m. He observed that the bed and the walls in Mrs. Schiers' room were covered with blood and there were bloodstains on the ceiling. On the floor beside the bed were a man's undershirt and a pair of men's shorts; the former was spattered with blood. Officer Jones qualified as an expert witness on the subject of forensic chemistry. He stated his opinion, based upon the pattern of the stains on the undershirt, that the garment had been lying in the same position when the blood spurted around the room.

The officer went to Mr. Schiers' bathroom and made a benzidine test, which is a standard test for blood. He gave the following description of the test: If a benzidine base, called a latent color, is mixed with an oxidase, the oxidase will carry oxygen to the latent color and the solution will turn blue. Blood is an exceptionally good oxidase and will react to benzidine even when the solution is diluted to the extent of one part blood to three hundred thousand parts water; the higher the proportion of blood, the more immediate and vivid will be the blue color reaction. Officer Jones tested the wash basin and obtained an immediate and vivid blue reaction from all parts of the bowl; he tested the water in the commode and got a similar reaction. There was also a spot of diluted blood just above the faucets of the wash basin. There was no blood in the shower stall.

Meanwhile, defendant arrived home from work, having been informed by telephone of his wife's death. One of the officers present suggested that he submit to a benzidine test in order to eliminate him as a suspect; defendant consented to the test. Officer Jones asked Schiers to step into his wife's bathroom and remove his shirt, which defendant did. The officer then dipped some cotton swabs fastened to short sticks into the benzidine reagent and began to apply the solution to defendant's hands; his hands turned blue immediately. Jones testified that defendant's fingers 'were all saturated with blood.' Color transparencies, showing the marks on his hands, were received in evidence. There was no blood under the fingernails, for they were cut short. (In this connection, Fred Hartley, a brother-in-law of the deceased, testified that defendant usually wore his nails quite long so that they covered the fingertips.) Jones then applied more swabs to defendant's arms and chest; at each application of the solution, the affected area turned blue immediately. Defendant said: 'My God, this puts me in an awful position.' At the officer's request, Schiers removed his trousers and the solution was applied to his legs; the officer obtained a uniformly distributed blue reaction all over the front of defendant's body down to his knees. There was no indication of blood below the knees, on the feet, or on defendant's back. Jones did not test Mr. Schiers' face. The witness made a blood test in Mrs. Schiers' bathroom and in other parts of the house, but found no traces of blood.

On cross-examination Officer Jones testified that bleaches, lead salts, nitrates and certain vegetable substances would also react positively to the benzidine test. However, it was his opinion that these substances would have to be applied systematically, rather than accidentally, to the body in order to produce a uniformly distributed color reaction.

Ray Pinker, chief forensic chemist with the Los Angeles Police Department, also qualified as an expert witness. Officer Pinker testified that he went to the Schiers' residence on February 14th and 15th and repeated the benzidine tests of the premises made by Lieutenant Jones. He used a solution containing hydrogen peroxide so as to eliminate the possibility of 'false' color reactions arising from bleaches. Pinker found no traces of blood in Mrs. Schiers' bathroom but in defendant's bathroom he got the same reactions that had been obtained by Officer Jones. The witness tested the soaps and detergents used in the Schiers household and found none which could produce a color reaction. He also tested the dirty clothes in the kitchen washtub, but he found no traces of blood on the clothing.

There was conflicting evidence as to the time of death. Mrs. Schiers' liver temperature was taken by a deputy county coroner at 2:10 p. m. on February 12th; the temperature was 84 degrees. Dr. Frederick Newbarr, the coroner's chief autopsy surgeon, testified that the normal temperature of the human liver is 99.6 degrees. He gave his opinion, based upon his reading of the medical literature and upon studies he had conducted personally, that the temperature of the liver decreases, under ordinary conditions, on an average of between 1.3 and 2.0 degrees per hour after death; the rate of cooling will vary according to the room temperature. It was his opinion that Mrs. Schiers died at some time between 10:30 p. m. on February 11th and 6:15 the following morning; he fixed the approximate time of her death at 2 a. m. Kenneth Johnson, an expert witness called by the defense, gave his opinion that the time of death was 7 a. m.

Officer Louis Belle was one of the investigating officers in the case. He had a conversation with Schiers at the police station on February 13th while defendant was in custody. In response to the officer's questions, defendant said that he spent the evening of February 11th at home with his wife. They ordinarily slept in separate bedrooms, but they retired to her bedroom that night around 1 a. m. He returned to his own bedroom an hour later, read a little and went to sleep. He heard nothing unusual during the night; had anything unusual occurred, he would have heard it because he was a light sleeper. Defendant said that he arose at 5 or 6, showered and shaved in his bathroom and left for work around 6:30 a. m. Upon being questioned about the benzidine test he stated that he had not cut himself and that he could not understand why the test indicated the presence of blood on his body. We will refer to other statements made by defendant in this and in subsequent conversations with Officer Belle at a later point in our opinion.

Defendant, testifying in his own behalf, denied killing his wife. He spent the evening at home with Mrs. Schiers. After dinner, he played solitaire and worked on income tax while Mrs. Schiers watched television. They drank a great deal. During the evening, Mrs. Schiers consumed six cans of beer and some scotch; defendant also drank some scotch. Around 10 p. m. they had 'a little tiff' about politics. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Schiers went to the store and bought a pint of scotch and some bottles of soda, which they also consumed. They retired to Mrs. Schiers' bedroom at 1 a. m. and had sexual intercourse; defendant left his undergarments on the floor. He went to his own bedroom an hour or so later. He did not see his wife or hear her voice thereafter, as she usually kept her door closed after retiring for the night. He heard no noise during the night. He awoke at 5 a. m., took a shower, shaved and left for work about 5:30. The candlestick holders were missing from his wife's bedroom several months before her death; he threw away the champagne bottle while cleaning out the kitchen a week or so after the murder. Defendant stated that the officer, in making the...