State v. Goodson
| Decision Date | 11 June 1923 |
| Docket Number | No. 23742.,23742. |
| Parties | STATE v. GOODSON. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Buchanan County; W..H. Utz, Judge.
Fenton N. Goodson was convicted of manslaughter, and he appeals. Reversed and remanded.
Mytton & Parkinson, W. B. Morris, and Barney E. Reilly, all of St. Joseph, far appellant.
Jesse W. Barrett, Atty. Gen., and J. Henry Caruthers, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Statement.
On October 4, 1920, the prosecuting attorney of Buchanan county, Mo., filed in the circuit court of said county an information against defendant in two counts. The first charged the defendant with murder in the first degree, in that on June 13, 1920, with a sharp instrument, etc., he murdered Bernetta Coleman. The second count of said information charged appeal ant with manslaughter, in having feloniously killed said Bernetta Coleman, by performing on abortion upon her on the date aforesaid.
On February 1, an amended information in two counts was filed in this cause. The first count charged defendant with murder in the first degree, as alleged in original information. The second count of amended information, on which the state elected to, and did, stand in the trial of the case, without caption and signature, reads as follows:
"Perry A. Brubaker, prosecuting attorney, within and for Buchanan county, in the state of Missouri, upon information and belief, and upon his official oath, informs the circuit court of Buchanan county that on or about the 13th day of June, 1920, at said county, Fenton N. Goodson in and upon one Bernetta Coleman, a pregnant woman, then and there willfully, feloniously and unlawfully with force and arms did make an assault; and did then and there willfully, feloniously and unlawfully use and employ in and upon the body and the womb of the said Bernetta Coleman a certain instrument and instruments, the nature and description of which is and are unknown to affiant, by then and there willfully, feloniously and unlawfully inserting, thrusting and forcing said instrument and instruments into the vaginal passage and womb and private parts of the said Bernetta Coleman, said pregnant woman, with the intent, then and there, to promote and produce a miscarriage and abortion upon and to the person of her the said Bernetta Coleman, the same not being then and there necessary to preserve the life of the said pregnant woman, to wit, the said Bernetta Coleman, and, the same not being then and there necessary to preserve the life of an unborn child, and the said act not being then and there advised by a duly licensed physician to be necessary for that purpose, and the said act and acts were done by the said Fenton N. Goodson, who was then and there a duly licensed physician, with the intent to produce and promote a miscarriage and abortion, willfully, feloniously and unlawfully in the manner aforesaid and by means and in consequence of which said use and employment in and upon the body and womb of the said Bernetta Coleman, as aforesaid, and with the felonious and unlawful intent then and there to promote and produce a miscarriage and abortion upon and to the person of the said Bernetta Coleman, he, the said Fenton N. Goodson, being then and there a licensed physician and then and there not intending necessary medical and surgical treatment, and not being then and there engaged in any act necessary to preserve the life of said Bernetta Coleman, or that of an unborn child, did by the means aforesaid and in the manner aforesaid mortally wound, infect and disease the body and womb of the said Bernetta Coleman, in consequence of which she was made and became mortally sick and of which mortal sickness on or about the 13th day of June, 1920, at the county of Buchanan, in the state of Missouri, she, the said Bernetta Coleman, did die; and so the prosecuting attorney aforesaid, upon his oath aforesaid, doth say that the said Fenton N. Goodson, her, the said Bernetta Coleman, at the county and state aforesaid, in the manner and by the means aforesaid, unlawfully, willfully and feloniously did kill and murder, contrary to the form of the statutes in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the state."
Appellant waived a formal arraignment, and entered his plea of not guilty. He filed a motion to quash the amended information, which was overruled. He thereupon filed a demurrer to the amended information, which was also overruled. On June 6, 1921, he was placed upon trial before a jury, and on the 8th of said month the following verdict was returned;
Defendant, in due time, filed motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment. Both motions were overruled, judgment rendered sentence pronounced, and defendant duly appealed the cause to this court.
The evidence on behalf of the state tends to show that appellant was a practicing physician in St. Joseph, Mo.; that Bernetta Coleman, a colored woman, 26 years of age, lived at Iowa City, Iowa; that prior to her marriage with Coleman, she had been married to two other men from whom she had separated; that on May 30, 1920, she came to St. Joseph, Mo., to visit her mother, Lucy Johnson, and stayed there about two weeks; that she had a little bundle when she left her mother, and told the latter she was going to Dr. Goodson's; that she first said she was going to her grandmother's, and then told her mother she was going to Dr. Goodson's hospital, and was pregnant.
Her mother testified that she was pregnant; that a letter came to her daughter from Dr. Goodson, in which he said: "I would Like to see you at your earliest convenience."
Mrs. Leona Allen, the aunt of Bernetta Coleman, testified that about the 9th of June she went with Bernetta to Dr. Goodson's hospital, and only stayed a few minutes; that Bernetta told witness she was pregnant; that Bernetta said she did not feel very good; that Lucy Johnson went with her to see Dr. Goodson, after it was reported that Bernetta Coleman was gone, and after her body had been found; that Dr. Goodson said Bernetta had gone, and her address was 2003 South Fourteenth street, Salt Lake City. Mrs. Allen testified at the trial that Bernetta Coleman told her she was going to Dr. Goodson and have an operation performed, but in her written statement offered in evidence at the trial, testified to directly the opposite state of facts.
Joseph Smith, defendant's office boy, testified that prior to June 11, 1920, a strange lady came to defendant's office, and he never saw her any more; that he put some rails in a double bed at defendant's place, but they were not the rails produced at the trial; that he never saw the rails before they were offered in evidence.
The evidence for the state further tends to show that P. E. Gordon, while fishing in Lake Contrary, in said county, about the middle of June, 1920, found the headless body of deceased, with iron rails wired to it, floating in said lake; that Dr. Wisser, the county coroner, was notified and examined the body of deceased; that his examination disclosed the body of deceased was fastened to a couple of bed rails by wire; that the head was gone, and there was a nail in one bunch of the wire, which fastened her body to the rails; that in his opinion the head had been removed in a scientific way; that the body above mentioned was that of a colored woman; that about one week after the body was buried, to Nit, on June 25th, he examined the body of deceased, removed her womb, and found that it was 6 or 7 inches long, while a normal womb would be about 3½ inches long; that the deceased had been pregnant, and in her womb there had been an opening of about 2 inches; that from what he found he thought an abortion had been produced; that where an abortion is produced, and the womb does not contract, a continuous flow or hemorrhage will follow,...
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