State v. Casper, 433
| Decision Date | 13 December 1961 |
| Docket Number | No. 433,433 |
| Citation | 122 S.E.2d 805,256 N.C. 99 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE, v. Gerald Thomas CASPER. |
T. W. Bruton, Atty. Gen., Harry W. McGalliard, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Blanchard & Farmer, Raleigh, for defendant, appellant.
The defendant argues the court committed error in refusing to allow his motion to dismiss at the close of the evidence. He insists if he is not entitled to have his conviction reversed, he is entitled to a new trial (1) because of the erroneous admission of the photographs in evidence and (2) because of the court's failure to charge the jury that in no event could it return a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree.
The evidence in the case fails to show any motive for the killing. Nevertheless, it does show by the defendant's admission that he and the deceased were in his vehicle outside her home in Raleigh about three o'clock in the morning. Both were drinking. He 'passed out.' He awoke in the vehicle about two hours later. His clothes and his vehicle were covered with blood. The body of the deceased was a few feet in front of his vehicle. He left the scene, went home, hid his clothes, washed the blood from the interior of the automobile, removed and concealed the bloodstained seat covers. The blood on his clothes, on what appeared to be the death weapon, and on the body of the deceased was of the same type.
The evidence does not disclose the distance between the home of the deceased in Raleigh and the place where her body was found on the outskirts. The evidence permits the inference the killing took place where the body was found because the cinder block apparently used as the weapon and other building materials were present at that place. There was no evidence that a cinder block was available as a weapon at the home of the deceased. At the same time, the blood in the vehicle may have been from a wound inflicted in the vehicle or outside, and the body carried in the vehicle, or the blood in the vehicle may have come from the defendant's bloody clothes.
While the case is not without its mysterious aspect, we think the evidence sufficient to require its submission to the jury under the applicable rules stated in: State v. Parrish, 251 N.C. 274, 111 S.E.2d 314; State v. Davis, 246 N.C. 73, 97 S.E.2d 444; State v. Stephens, 244 N.C. 380, 93 S.E.2d 431, and other cases therein cited.
The photographs introduced were identified as accurate representations. They were offered and admitted over general objection. They were properly admissible for the limited purpose of enabling the witness the better to...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Foster
...interposed and overruled, 'it will not be considered reversible error if the evidence is competent for any purpose.' State v. Casper, 256 N.C. 99, 122 S.E.2d 805 (1961); State v. Cade, 215 N.C. 393, 2 S.E.2d 7 (1939); Rule 21, Rules of Practice in the Supreme Court. Since the photographs co......
-
State v. Dawson
...and not as substantive evidence. They were competent for the limited purpose stated and their admission was not error. State v. Casper, 256 N.C. 99, 122 S.E.2d 805 (1961), cert. den., 376 U.S. 927, 84 S.Ct. 691, 11 L.Ed.2d 622 Defendant insists, however, that the State sought to use the pho......
-
State v. Griffin, 413A82
...Id. at 662, 44 S.E.2d at 221 (emphasis added). In relying on DeMai, this Court reached a similar result in State v. Casper, 256 N.C. 99, 102, 122 S.E.2d 805, 807 (1961), cert. denied, 376 U.S. 927, 84 S.Ct. 691, 11 L.Ed.2d 622 (1964) where a defendant contended it was error for the trial co......
-
State v. Berkley, 8113SC737
...to the greater crimes, absent some showing that the verdicts of guilty as to the lesser crimes were affected thereby. State v. Casper, 256 N.C. 99, 122 S.E.2d 805 (1961), cert. denied, 376 U.S. 927, 84 S.Ct. 691, 11 L.Ed.2d 622 (1964); State v. DeMai, 227 N.C. 657, 44 S.E.2d 218 (1947); Sta......