Raeber v. Com.
| Decision Date | 18 November 1977 |
| Citation | 558 S.W.2d 609 |
| Parties | Herman G. RAEBER, Jr., Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
Jack Emory Farley, Public Defender, Thomas R. Lewis, Asst. Public Defender, Frankfort, for appellant.
Robert F. Stephens, Atty. Gen., David H. Whalin, Asst. Atty. Gen., Frankfort, for appellee.
Herman G. Raeber was convicted of murder, KRS 507.020, and first-degree assault, KRS 508.010. Raeber was sentenced to life imprisonment on the conviction of murder and to a term of ten years' imprisonment on the conviction of first-degree assault. The sentences were adjudged to run consecutively. We affirm.
Raeber and his wife, Wanda L. Raeber, were married for twenty-three years. For two years prior to the incident which gave rise to this prosecution, Raeber was unemployed due to an allergy condition. While Raeber was out of work, Wanda Raeber was employed at a nursing home where she became acquainted with Jerome Messer. According to Raeber, he became suspicious of the relationship, and after a quarrel with Wanda Raeber on Saturday night, she left in the family automobile. The next morning, Raeber found the family automobile parked in Messer's driveway and drove the car home. Raeber then called Messer's house and spoke with his wife. According to Raeber, she informed him that she wanted a divorce. Raeber had been drinking beer and after the telephone conversation had another beer, loaded his pistol, and placed it behind a couch in the living room.
Later Messer drove Wanda Raeber to the Raeber house, where, according to Raeber, Messer made a comment as to his sexual ability with Wanda Raeber. With this, Raeber picked up his pistol and, according to his testimony, pointed at Messer and pulled the trigger. The pistol did not fire, therefore, Raeber pulled the automatic pistol close to his chest to cock it. The pistol then went off striking his wife. Raeber then fired at Messer and chased him outside firing several times. Messer was wounded in three places on his body, but closed with Raeber and disarmed him. Raeber then reentered his home and had another beer. Wanda Raeber, fatally wounded, was dead on the couch when the police officers arrived.
According to Messer, his relationship with Wanda Raeber was that of a good friend and there was no involvement in the sense of them being lovers. Messer also described the shooting scene differently. He testified that Raeber invited him into the house,
During the course of the trial, Raeber's...
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Barth v. Com.
...Ky., 817 S.W.2d 228, 229 (1991), overruled on other grounds, Commonwealth v. Ramsey, Ky., 920 S.W.2d 526 (1996); Raeber v. Commonwealth, Ky., 558 S.W.2d 609, 610 (1977); Lee v. Commonwealth, Ky., 242 S.W.2d 984, 987 (1951); as have the federal courts, both before and after adoption of the F......
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Wilson v. Com., s. 87-CA-969-M
...the fire, even though it shows evidence of other criminal conduct, was not inadmissible because of that fact. See Raeber v. Commonwealth, Ky., 558 S.W.2d 609 (1977). Furthermore, the jury was admonished by the trial court that it should consider this evidence of other criminal activity only......