People v. Sparks

• Decision Date: 29 May 1974
• Docket Number: Docket No. 16227,No. 2,2
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lawrence J. SPARKS, Defendant-Appellant
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US

Page 153

220 N.W.2d 153

53 Mich.App. 452

PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lawrence J. SPARKS, Defendant-Appellant.

Docket No. 16227.

Court of Appeals of Michigan, Division No. 2.

May 29, 1974.

Released for Publication July 23, 1974.

Bruce T. Leitman, Campbell, Lee, Kurzman & Leitman, Bloomfield Hills, for defendant-appellant.

Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen., Robert A. Derengoski, Sol. Gen., L. Brooks Patterson, Pros. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

Before McGREGOR, P.J., and R. B. BURNS and O'HARA,* JJ.

McGREGOR, Presiding Judge.

Defendant, charged with first-degree murder, M.C.L.A. § 750.316; M.S.A. § 28.548, was tried before a jury and was convicted. After his motion for a new trial was denied, defendant appeals as of right.

At the conclusion of the preliminary examination, defendant was bound over to circuit court to stand trial on the charge brought in the information, the first-degree murder of Wilhelmina (Mimi) A. Sims. Defendant's allegations of error concern only this preliminary examination.

This Court is asked to determine that the examining magistrate erred in finding that the people had shown probable cause to believe that the crime committed by defendant was first-degree murder and that the people's case at preliminary examination was fatally defective for failure to establish venue.

The threshold question for this Court is whether the first issue has been properly preserved. A defendant may not on appeal raise errors or irregularities relating to the preliminary examination, unless the issue was timely raised prior to or at trial. People v. Stinson, 6 Mich.App. 648, 150 N.W.2d 171 (1967); People v. Miniear, 8 Mich.App. 591, 155 N.W.2d 222 (1967); People v. White, 32 Mich.App. 296, 188 N.W.2d 236 (1971); People v. Boyd, 49 Mich.App. 388, 212 N.W.2d 333 (1973). Defense counsel did file and argue a motion to quash before trial, which alleged that the people had failed to prove venue, thus properly preserving that issue. The motion also urged that there was an absence of proof on the element of premeditation. Defense counsel did not refer specifically to the rule that the corpus delicti must be shown before admissions of the accused are admitted. Defense counsel argued, in essence, that there was an absence of premeditation, even assuming the proper admission of the accused's confessions, without reaching the question of whether those confessions were properly admitted. Hence, defendant's case falls in the gray area where defense counsel has tangentially but not specifically raised the precise issue now urged on appeal.

Some of the evidence presented at the preliminary examination clearly showed that Ms. Sims' body was found by a state trooper, on the shoulder of the I--75 expressway in the City of Troy, Oakland County, Michigan. Her body was lying on its back, with her head on her purse and her hands across her stomach. There was snow on the ground and the trooper could observe blood and footprints in the snow. The footprints were distinctly those of two individuals, and it appeared to the trooper that someone had attempted to cover them up. There were other blood spots in the outer right lane of the expressway, about 100 feet from the body.

The Oakland County Medical Examiner testified that the decedent suffered multiple stab wounds and cuts, one of which stab wounds was to the left breast and punctured the lung; another stab wound was to the right abdomen and punctured the liver; a major wound was to the right armpit which severed large blood vessels; and that there were cuts to the right wrist and left hand. The examiner testified that the cause of death was shock and hemorrhage due to the multiple stab wounds; he also expressed an opinion that the weapon used was a wide-bladed knife approximately 2 to 3 inches long.

The preliminary examination further established that the decedent lived in Detroit and that she was last seen alive with the defendant at the house of a mutual friend in Detroit; that the defendant and decedent left that house together at approximately 2:00 on the morning of the crime. The defendant was next seen again in Detroit at about 4:30 that morning, without the victim. At that time, the defendant had blood around his mouth and on his coat and shoes, which he wiped off with a towel. The defendant was known to carry a 12-inch hunting knife in his car.

The question of probable cause is primarily one for the consideration and determination of the examining magistrate. Neither the trial court nor the Court of Appeals should substitute its judgment for that of the magistrate, except when a clear abuse of discretion is apparent. People v. Medley, 339 Mich. 486, 64 N.W.2d 708 (1954).

Premeditation and deliberation may be inferred from all of the circumstances surrounding a killing. These include the character of the weapon used and the infliction of wounds upon vital parts of the body. People v. Wolf, 95 Mich. 625, 629, 55 N.W. 357 (1893).

A concise summary of the relevant law is found in People v. Randall, 42 Mich.App. 187, 190, 201 N.W.2d 292 (1972), where the Court said:

'It is well-accepted that the corpus delicti must be established by evidence other than a confession of the accused. It is also well-accepted that this rule applies to a preliminary examination. People v. Asta, 337 Mich. 590, 60 N.W.2d 472 (1953); People v. Reid, 295 Mich. 572, 295 N.W. 317 (1940); People v. White, 276 Mich. 29, 267 N.W. 777 (1936); Peterson v. Oceana Circuit Judge, 243 Mich. 215, 219 N.W. 934 (1928). Furthermore, in most crimes the prosecutor must show that the crime charged has been committed, or stated differently, he must show all of the elements of the offense. People v. Barron, 381 Mich. 421, 163 N.W.2d 219 (1968); People v. Kelsch, 16 Mich.App. 244, 167 N.W.2d 777 (1969).'

The state of the law before People v. Allen, 390 Mich. 383, 212 N.W.2d 21 (1973), as defendant concedes, is clearly contrary to his position. It has been held that proof of the corpus delicti of murder is established by proof of death and a criminal agency as its cause. People v. Mondich, 234 Mich. 590, 208 N.W.2d 675 (1926); People v. Coapman, 326 Mich. 321, 40 N.W.2d 167 (1949); People v. Kozlow, 38 Mich.App. 517, 196 N.W.2d 792 (1972). It has been said affirmatively that the corpus delicti is established by death and an unnatural cause of death. People v. Jackson, 1 Mich.App. 207, 135 N.W.2d 557 (1965); People v. Herrera, 12 Mich.App. 67, 162 N.W.2d 330 (1968), rev. on other grounds, 383 Mich. 49, 173 N.W.2d 202 (1970); People v. Spells, 42 Mich.App. 243, 201 N.W.2d 361 (1972). Defendant argues that the testimony of the medical examiner does not establish a criminal or unnatural cause of death. The facts elicited from the medical examiner support the conclusion of the examining magistrate that the cause of death was a criminal or unnatural cause.

It is the precise nature of the wounds in an individual case which lead to the alternative inferences of premeditation or the lack of premeditation. The wounds in the present case would permit an inference that the stabbing was done with premeditation and deliberation.

Robert Cleveland testified that he had known defendant since they met in 1967 or 1968, and that at 11:30 or 12:00 in the late evening of February 8, 1972, he saw the defendant at his residence; that defendant's brother, Jim Sparks, and James Vincent and Sharon Vincent also were there; that Mimi Sims arrived in the early morning hours of ...