State v. Harbison

• Decision Date: 03 February 1986
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee, Appellee, v. Edward Jerome HARBISON, Appellant.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 314

704 S.W.2d 314

STATE of Tennessee, Appellee, v. Edward Jerome HARBISON, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Tennessee,

at Knoxville.

Feb. 3, 1986.

Rodney C. Strong, Chattanooga, for appellant.

Gordon W. Smith, Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, for appellee; W.J. Michael Cody, Atty. Gen. & Reporter, Nashville, Stanley J. Lanzo, Asst. Dist. Atty. Gen., Chattanooga, of counsel.

OPINION

DROWOTA, Justice.

The defendant, Edward Jerome Harbison, appeals directly to this Court his conviction of first degree murder and the sentence of death imposed by the jury, and his convictions of second degree burglary and grand larceny, for which he was sentenced to three years in the state penitentiary. He raises numerous issues in this appeal; but, after careful review of the entire record and the law, we find these issues to be without merit. The verdict and judgment are supported by material evidence, and the sentence of death is in no way arbitrary or disproportionate. We therefore affirm the convictions and the sentences.

Since the defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence for his convictions, we summarize the evidence presented at trial. On Saturday, January 15, 1983, around midnight, Frank Russell returned to his home in Chattanooga to find that his wife, Edith, had been murdered. Mrs. Russell's body was lying on the floor of an apartment at the back of the home, which had been rented to a tenant. The tenant was away on vacation in Florida at the time of the murder.

Upon returning home from work, Mr. Russell first noticed that the porch lights were off and the front door was wide open, which, he stated, was unusual. There were pry marks on the door. The room in which Mrs. Russell was found was in disarray and there was evidence of a struggle. Both the house and the apartment had been burglarized and numerous items were missing including an RCA XL-100 television, two cable television converters, a quartz heater, a Polaroid 210 camera, a silver Cross pen and pencil set, a jeweler's loop, a jewelry box, antique jewelry, a marble vase, and Mrs. Russell's purse.

Mr. Russell testified that when he and his 62-year-old wife purchased the house seven years earlier, James Harbison and his son, Edward Jerome, the defendant, did some repair work on the house. Since that time, the two had worked on the house periodically, and the defendant performed some work at the house about a month prior to the murder.

Mrs. Russell left home about 1:30 p.m. to go to a neighborhood market, where witnesses spoke with her around 2:30 to 2:45 that afternoon. Mr. Russell left for work about 2:30 p.m. before she had returned home. No one saw or heard from Mrs. Russell after she left the market. Her car was found parked in the driveway of their home with the key still in the ignition, and sacks of groceries still in the car.

The investigation of the crime led police to the residence of Janice Duckett, the defendant's girlfriend and the sister of David Schreane. Schreane had been seen in the area of the Russell home on the day of the murder. A search of the Duckett residence yielded several of the items stolen from the Russell home, including the quartz heater, the Polaroid camera, the silver Cross pen and pencil set and a jeweler's loop was found in a shaving kit belonging to the defendant. In an adjacent unoccupied apartment, police found a burned jewelry box in the fireplace, and a purse belonging to Mrs. Russell containing a small change purse. Two large paper sacks were also found containing antique glassware and brassware.

On February 21, 1983, David Schreane was taken into custody and questioned. As a result, his girlfriend's home was searched by police and there they found the stolen RCA television set. Schreane then led the officers to the marble vase which was lying inside a hedgerow beside a street. Chemical testing of the vase revealed the presence of blood. Debris vacuumed from the carpet of defendant's automobile revealed crystalline calcite fragments consistent with the marble vase.

Harbison was arrested on February 21, 1983, and brought to the police service center at 5:46 p.m. A taped statement was taken from him at 7:55 p.m. In the statement, he confessed to killing Mrs. Russell. He stated that after he had picked his girlfriend up and taken her home, he and Schreane went to check out the Russell residence. He stated that after determining that no one was there, he and Schreane backed their car up to the rear of the house and then went to the front door and opened it with a screwdriver. They then went inside and began accumulating items. He stated that they got an RCA XL-100 television set, a Cross pen and pencil set, a Polaroid 210 camera, a jewelry box, a .25 automatic pistol, a pocketbook, a clutch purse, a jeweler's loop, a heater and a marble vase. They had been at the residence 15 to 20 minutes carrying items out to the car. He then told how he and Schreane had been surprised by Mrs. Russell as they were burglarizing her house and the tenant's apartment. They did not hear her drive up in her car. He stated that when Mrs. Russell came in the door and reached for her pocketbook, he thought she was reaching for a gun and he grabbed her and they began "tusslin." The defendant grabbed the marble vase and hit her with it, knocking her down. He stated that he struck her with the marble vase "at the most" two times. Schreane got Mrs. Russell's pocketbook and no gun was found. During the scuffle with Mrs. Russell, the defendant's right hand was scratched, leaving a visible scar.

In the room where Mrs. Russell's body was found, there were blood spatterings on the wall and fireplace. A broken globe from an overhead chandelier was found next to her body. The medical examiner testified that in his opinion Mrs. Russell was struck at least three times with the vase in order to inflict the injuries he observed. The vase weighed a minimum of 25 pounds. All of the bones of the head, both front and back, were broken. The cause of Mrs. Russell's death was massive multiple skull fractures with marked lacerations of the scalp and head, expelling brain tissue and literally crushing the victim's face and disfiguring her beyond recognition.

Janice Duckett, the defendant's girlfriend, testified for the defense that on January 15, 1983, at 2:30 p.m., the defendant and her brother, David Schreane, picked her up at the Precision Hair School and took her to her home, where Harbison remained the rest of the day. She claimed that she had bought the heater at Sears, that the Cross pen and pencil set was a Christmas present, and that her brother owned the Polaroid camera.

The defendant testified that he did not break into the Russell home on January 15, 1983, and kill Mrs. Russell. He testified that he was at his girlfriend's home the afternoon of January 15 and did not leave the house that evening. He further testified that he had only confessed because the police threatened to arrest his girlfriend and take away her children. He said that the police had told him what to say and that the tape of his confession, played to the jury, had been tampered with. He testified that he bought the jeweler's loop, found in his shaving kit, at a pawn shop.

In rebuttal the State put on the two officers who had interrogated Harbison. The Chief of Detectives testified that at the time the defendant was questioned they did not threaten him with his girlfriend's arrest in order to obtain the confession.

I

The first issue which we shall address is whether there is sufficient proof to sustain Harbison's convictions of murder in the first degree, under common law and felony murder, burglary in the second degree, and grand larceny. The principles which govern our review of a conviction by jury are well settled. A jury verdict approved by the trial judge accredits the testimony of the witnesses for the State and resolves all conflicts in favor of the State's theory. State v. Hatchett, 560 S.W.2d 627, 630 (Tenn.1978); State v. Townsend, 525 S.W.2d 842, 843 (Tenn.1975). On appeal, the State is entitled to the strongest legitimate view of the evidence and all reasonable or legitimate inferences which may be drawn therefrom. State v. Cabbage, 571 S.W.2d 832, 836 (Tenn.1978). A verdict against the defendant removes the presumption of innocence and raises a presumption of guilt on appeal, State v. Grace, 493 S.W.2d 474, 476 (Tenn.1973), which the defendant had the burden of overcoming. State v. Brown, 551 S.W.2d 329, 330 (Tenn.1977). After viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, we must affirm the conviction if any rational trier of fact could have found defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Rule 13(e), T.R.A.P.

Based upon the evidence described heretofore, we are convinced a rational jury could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

II

The defendant argues that the introduction of vivid and gruesome photographs was prejudicial and not sufficiently probative. Defendant avers the color photographs, showing the head of the body as it appeared at the scene, are inflammatory and prejudicial. The defendant further argues that the testimony of the medical examiner and the funeral director clearly and vividly described the nature of the blows received by the deceased, and that their verbal descriptions give a clear picture of the injuries sustained.

Generally, "the admissibility of photographs is a matter to be determined by the trial court in the exercise of its sound discretion." Cagle v. State, 507 S.W.2d 121, 132 (Tenn.Crim.App.1973). The trial court's ruling will not be overturned on appeal except upon a clear showing of abuse of that discretion. State v. Banks, 564 S.W.2d 947, 949 (Tenn.1978). "When photographs, gruesome in nature and likely to appeal to the emotions of the jury, are not probative of some contested factual issue they are not...