Sadler v. State
| Decision Date | 02 January 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 35137,35137 |
| Parties | James Franklin SADLER, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Francis C. Richter, Hondo, for appellant.
J. Taylor Brite, Dist. Atty., Jourdanton, and Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
The appellant was convicted for the offense of murder with malice aforethought, under an indictment alleging that he killed Lorene Taylor Hill by hitting her in the face and head with his hands and fists. His punishment was assessed at 15 years' confinement in the State penitentiary.
The evidence reflects that the deceased was a young girl, 22 years of age; that she weighed between ninety and one hundred pounds, not over 100 pounds, and that she was five feet in height, and shown by the testimony to have been a very small woman, very small bones and arms, not a fleshy person. The evidence adduced from the appellant's written statement without objection further reflects that she had been rather sickly, that she was subject to blackout spells and had low blood pressure, that she took medicine for her illness and that she had gone to several doctors in Rio Grande City, Zapata and Jourdanton.
The appellant was described, as shown by the testimony of Sheriff Dobbs, as being a man that would weigh a hundred and ninety pounds and was six feet two or six feet three inches in height; that he was a very strong man; that he had been an athlete, been a boxer fighting in the Golden Gloves tournaments; that he was around thirty years old.
The written statement of appellant reflects that he and the deceased had been living together for about 4 months, that she had been legally married to someone else during this time, that she had been separated for a long time, that they started living together on or about March 5, 1961.
The State's testimony reflects a series of acts of violence committed on the part of appellant against the person of the deceased, during the period of several months while the parties lived together out of wedlock.
Richard Lloyd Wilkinson, a witness for the State, testified that he was running Scottie's Blue Top in Jourdanton on the day of the death of the decedent; that he saw appellant in this place of business with the deceased and another couple; that he heard a little commotion and saw appellant slap his wife completely out of the chair and onto the floor right at the side of the chair; that he wouldn't say it was a closed fist or what.
The appellant did not destify, but in his written statement he says that he went to the rest room (shown to be at Scottie's Blue Top) and when he returned the deceased and the others with them were gone; that they had gotten in the barbecue line; that this made him mad and he asked the deceased why they did not wait for him; that he told her she was supposed to do what he told her to do, and not what somebody else told her to do; that he and deceased had a few words; that he then got real mad and he hit her in the face with his hand one time; that it knocked the barbecue out of her hand; that she did not fall out of the chair when he hit her; that they then left the cafe and went to his father's home; that the deceased said she was tired and wanted to go to bed; that she went to bed and seemed to be crying or whimpering; that he went to see about her and subsequently he determined to take her to a doctor, going to his sister's home for a car, as his was about out of gas; that when he returned to his father's house the deceased was dead.
Dr. Robert Hausman, shown to be the medical examiner of Bexar County, a witness for the State, who performed the autopsy on deceased, described in detail that the deceased had evidence of bruises. The bruises consisted of some fresh bruises and some old bruises. There were bruises around the right eye, right upper and lower eyelids were discolored, and there was hemorrhaging in the white of the eye; the outside of the right eye in the white was hemorrhaged. The bruises of the right eye trailed all over the cheek as yellow discolorations, and it merged with other bruises over the side of the lower jaw, so the right side of the face was bruised. There was a nail mark over the left eye-brow, two small hemorrhages in the right half of the lower lip in the inside of the lip; on the left side of the face, from the outer ridge of the eye socket to the ear there was a swelling and blue discoloration. The bruise of the left eye and the left temple was less than twenty-four hours old, possibly less than twelve hours old. The bruise of the right eye was older than 24 hours. There was a clot which covered the right half of the brain. The right half was filled with a clot which pressed on the brain, that this blood clot is called a subdural hematoma, meaning a collection of blood, and it compressed the right half of the brain and it was the cause of death. This subdural hematoma was caused by blunt force directed against the head. Dr. Hausman expressed the opinion that the subdural hematoma was brought about by blunt force injury directed to the left temple and to the left eye because they appeared about the same age. In addition to this hematoma, the brain showed some other injuries, too. Over the part of what we call the temporal, there were two areas of old bruising; that was in addition to the blood clot that he found overlying the right half of the brain. On sections of the brain itself, there was a small hemorrhage, also old, inside the brain matter. Also, there was evidence that part of the subdural hematoma was older than twenty-four hours. The doctor stated that he did not find anything that could have caused her death except for this fresh subdural hematoma; that the wounds he examined were caused by blunt force to the face, in this case two separate blows, one of which produced the black eye on the left and one which produced the black eye on the right; that on the inside of the dura mater there was evidence that there had been previously blood; that this was a matter of days, did not look that it was older than two or three weeks. The same held true for the bruising on the right side of the brain; that was also a matter of days and possibly weeks. All of those bruises and injury to the brain in his opinion were not over three weeks old.
'Q. Dr. Hausman, I'd like to ask you a hypothetical question based upon your autopsy of this girl and what you found that you have testified here to before the jury. Now, assuming a few things that I will state to you, that approximately one week before you conducted this autopsy, a man of the weight of one hundred and ninety pounds, an ex-boxer, a strong man, struck this girl in the right eye with his hands and fists and then on approximately 8:30 P.M. of the night before you conducted this autopsy, that on the night of July the 4th at approximately 8:30 P.M. he again struck her in the face with his hands and fists sufficient to knock her out of a chair and on the floor, onto the floor, would such injury to the face of this girl and such force applied to the fists have created the subdural hematoma that you have described as resulted in her death?
'A. Yes, sir, it would in my opinion.
'Q. And if that did happen, Dr. Hausman, and with no evidence of anything else, would that in your opinion have caused her death from what you found?
Appellant...
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...case must necessarily turn upon its own facts, and prior cases are only useful to determine the dividing line." Sadler v. State, 364 S.W.2d 234, 238(Tex.Crim.App. 1963). We start with a couple of lines of demarcation from two early opinions from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. In Watso......
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