State v. Chasteen, 17059

• Decision Date: 24 August 1955
• Docket Number: No. 17059,17059
• Citation: 88 S.E.2d 880,228 S.C. 88
• Parties: The STATE, Respondent, v. Marvin H. CHASTEEN, Appellant.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

Page 880

88 S.E.2d 880

228 S.C. 88

The STATE, Respondent, v. Marvin H. CHASTEEN, Appellant.

No. 17059.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Aug. 24, 1955.

Frank E. Harrison, McCormick, Felix L. Finley, Jr., Pickens, for appellant.

Hubert E. Long, Leesville, for respondent.

OXNER, Justice.

Upon an indictment charging him with the murder of Roy Wiggins on November 5, 1953, appellant was tried at the June 1954, term of the Court of General Sessions of McCormick County. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by electrocution.

By the first two exceptions appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict. This question was timely raised in the Court below by a motion for a directed verdict and for a new trial.

The deceased and his family lived near Easley, South Carolina. His wife, Rose Wiggins, worked in the weave room of the Glenwood Cotton Mill. Appellant worked in the same room. He and Mrs. Wiggins operated adjoining looms.

Around noon on November 10, 1953, two Negroes, who had been directed by their employer to cut some wood, found the body of the deceased near a sawdust pile in a rural section of McCormick County, about five miles from the town of McCormick. They notified the Sheriff who went immediately to the scene. According to this officer, deceased was lying in the woods on his stomach with his hands folded under him. There was considerable blood under his head but none on his clothing. He was neatly dressed. There were beggar lice on his trousers. The body was removed to an undertaking establishment where that night it was examined by a physician. He found two bullet wounds in the head. One entered on the left side behind the ear, passed through the brain and lodged over the right eye. The other entered just behind the forehead, passed through the brain and lodged at the back of the head. According to this physician, either wound was sufficient to have caused death. It was his opinion that the deceased had been dead at least two or three days before he was found. The bullets were removed from the head and delivered to a ballistics expert of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, who was present when the autopsy was performed.

A son-in-law of appellant testified that one night (he was unable to recall the date) appellant came to his home and borrowed a rifle, stating that he wanted to go squirrel hunting. He returned it the next afternoon, saying that he went hunting but did not kill anything. During the investigation of the homicide, the officers came to the home of this witness, seized the rifle and turned it over to the ballistics expert. Later this expert fired several bullets from the rifle and compared them under a microscope with those removed from the head of deceased. He was quite positive that all of the bullets came from the same rifle.

On November 11, 1953, the day following the discovery of deceased's body, several members of the State Constabulary, along with a number of local officers, started an intensive investigation. Early Monday night, November 16th, they took appellant from his home at Easley to the Sheriff's office at Pickens, where he was questioned for several hours. Shortly before eleven o'clock he was released so as to enable him to go to work on the third shift in the mill that night. He promised to be back in Pickens at eleven o'clock the following morning. He failed to meet this engagement. It developed that he had disappeared.

About 8:30 on Monday morning, November 23rd, the Sheriff of Pickens County was called over the telephone by a Mr. Ellis, an Easley minister, and informed that appellant was there and desired to surrender. As a result of this conversation, Ellis took appellant to Pickens and delivered him to the Sheriff. According to the officers, appellant seemed tired and worried and said that he had been to Mexico and had lost a lot of sleep. His first statement with reference to the homicide was made about nine or ten o'clock that morning at Pickens, when he said that Mrs. Wiggins met him on a highway with the body of the deceased in the trunk of her car, which was then placed in the trunk of his car and taken by them to McCormick County. Shortly thereafter the officers proceeded with appellant to McCormick. En route he remarked that he had not told the truth. He then said that he had Mrs. Wiggins went to Greenville on the morning of November 5th and picked up the deceased, telling him that they were going squirrel hunting, after which the three of them drove to McCormick County, where Mrs. Wiggins shot her husband. After making this statement, the officers stated that appellant, without any aid, directed them to the alleged scene of the crime. Upon arrival there, appellant stated that he was the one who shot the deceased while the latter was looking at a squirrel's nest. That afternoon the officers took him to the headquarters of the Law Enforcement Division near Columbia where he was questioned for several hours. About nine o'clock that night he made a lengthy statement which was taken down and transcribed by a stenographer, after which it was signed by appellant who was given a copy.

It would unnecessarily add to the length of this opinion to relate the details of the foregoing confession. In substance it was as follows: Appellant, a 39 year old married man with two children, first met Mrs. Wiggins while both worked in the weave room of the Glenwood Cotton Mills at Easley. In January, 1952, after knowing her about six months, he had a 'date' with her, in the course of which they went into the woulds and had sexual relations. From that time on they went out regularly, at first about every two weeks and later once or twice a week. Occasionally they would be accompanied by another couple. On Wednesday, November 4, 1953, they had sexual intercourse near a cemetery in Pickens County. It was here that they had their first affair almost two years previously. Both expressed affection for each other and discussed the possibility of being able to live together. Finally, Mrs. Wiggins told him that she was sending her husband to Greenville the next morning and 'for me to meet him over there and straighten things out and we would go together and be happy always.' That night he went to the home of his son-in-law and borrowed a rifle, stating that he wanted to go squirrel hunting. Early the next morning, November 5th, he bought some cartridges for the rifle, came to Greenville and picked up the deceased. After suggesting that they go squirrel hunting, appellant drove to McCormick County where he shot the deceased while the latter was looking at a squirrel's nest. Deceased fell and appellant shot him a second time. He then returned to Easley. He continued to work in the mill. On Wednesday morning, November 11th, he learned that the body of deceased had been found. On Monday night following he was picked up by the officers and questioned for several hours, but denied any connection with the homicide. The next day he left Easley and went to Mexico. He finally decided that he would return home and surrender. He reached Easley on Monday morning, November 23rd, and found his family at the home of his mother-in-law. He was then informed that a warrant had been issued for him. He indicated a desire to surrender in Columbia but his wife and mother-in-law advised him to report to the Sheriff at Pickens. He requested that Mr. Ellis, a minister, be called. Mr. Ellis came and after prayers, appellant requested him to call the Sheriff of Pickens County. Following this conversation, he was taken by Mr. Ellis to Pickens where he surrendered.

After signing the above confession, appellant was brought back to the jail at McCormick. A day or so later he indicated a desire to make a further statement. On November 25th, he was again taken to the headquarters of the Law Enforcement Division at Columbia, where shortly after midnight a second confession was signed, which in most particulars was similar to the first. The differences are not very material. In the second statement appellant said he induced the deceased to go out with him on the pretext that he (deceased) was to be initiated by the 'Secret Service' in connection with a job which appellant claimed to have arranged for him with that organization.

Many of the facts stated in the confessions were corroborated by other evidence. To illustrate: In the second statement appellant said that after the homicide he found the deceased's watch in the car and upon returning home near Easley, he threw it in his outside toilet. Later the officers found the watch where appellant said he placed it. In both confessions he stated that on several occasions in going out with Mrs. Wiggins he double-dated with one Charles Gibson. This was confirmed by the testimony of Gibson. The description given in the confessions as to the manner in which deceased was shot and the physical surroundings at the scene was remarkably in harmony with the facts developed at the trial.

The foregoing constitutes a brief summary of the State's testimony. Appellant elected not to take the stand. The principal testimony for the defense related to appellant's intelligence and reputation.

Appellant contends that in considering the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict, the confessions, to which objection was made at the trial, must be eliminated because involuntary. The officers denied that appellant was intimidated, abused or threatened in any manner. They said the confessions were made without inducements of any nature and that appellant was repeatedly warned that any statement made by him might be used against him. All of the evidence tends to show that the statements were freely and voluntarily given. No evidence was offered in behalf of appellant to the contrary. We think the confessions were properly admitted. State v. Grant, 199 S.C. 412, 19 S.E.2d 638; State v. Judge, 208 S.C. 497, 38 S.E.2d 715; State v....