State v. Heald

• Decision Date: 06 July 1972
• Citation: 292 A.2d 200
• Parties: STATE of Maine v. Augustus F. HEALD.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 200

292 A.2d 200

STATE of Maine v. Augustus F. HEALD.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

July 6, 1972.

Chadbourn H. Smith, John R. Atwood, Asst. Attys. Gen., Augusta, for plaintiff.

Eaton, Glass, Marsano & Hammond by Francis C. Marsano, Belfast, for defendant.

Before DUFRESNE, C. J., and WEBBER, WEATHERBEE, POMEROY, WERNICK, and ARCHIBALD, JJ.

WEBBER, Justice.

The defendant Heald, tried for murder, was convicted by a jury of manslaughter. His appeal has been ably presented by counsel appointed by the Court for that purpose but who was not defendant's counsel at the time of trial.

The jury could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that at about 4:00 P.M. on January 16, 1965 one Ethlyn Hamilton and her son Wayne came to Belfast by automobile; that by prior arrangement they met Edna Hamilton, victim of this homicide, at the 'frozen food locker;' that they were related to Mrs. Hamilton by marriage; that they drove Mrs. Hamilton to the apartment occupied by Mariba Beard, Mrs. Hamilton's sister; that they waited in the parked automobile while Mrs. Hamilton entered the apartment situated on the second floor; that within approximately three minutes they heard a 'bang' from within the building; that Mrs. Hamilton then ran from the door, leaped from the porch, ran about 20 feet to the side and fell or threw herself face down on the snow covered ground with her arms over her head; that the door to the Beard apartment then opened part way and a hand holding a revolver emerged; that the revolver was aimed and fired at Mrs. Hamilton; that the person holding the revolver closed the door; that Mrs. Hamilton bled profusely as she lay on the snow; that as the door closed she rose to her feet, ran and entered the car exclaiming, 'My God, he shot me!'; that Mrs. Hamilton died at the hospital at about 5:00 P.M. as the result of multiple gunshot wounds; that persons who lived in other apartments in the same building and who knew the defendant had seen him on prior occasions entering, leaving and sitting near the window of the Beard apartment; that he had been seen picking up articles of the type often found in a woman's handbag which articles had been lying on the porch in front of the Beard apartment door throughout part of the day on January 16, 1965; that these articles were found after the shooting in the Beard apartment; that the homicide was observed by four eye witnesses, two of whom had an opportunity to observe the fact of the killer and recognized it as that of the defendant whom they knew; and that very shortly after the shooting the defendant was observed by three witnesses emerging from the back door of the Beard apartment at the rear of the building and leaving the area. This evidence, standing undisputed and uncontradicted by evidence from any source, constitutes overwhelming proof of an unlawful homicide and would have fully supported a verdict of guilty of the crime of murder. For reasons which will appear it likewise supports a verdict of guilty of the crime of manslaughter.

The defendant vigorously contends that since there was no evidence from any source either of heat of passion induced by sudden provocation or of any other circumstances tending to reduce the degree of the homicide to voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, the jury was obliged to find the defendant either guilty of murder or not guilty. He asserts that a manslaughter verdict was 'preposterous' and must be set aside. This argument has been frequently made and in the great majority of cases summarily rejected. The rationale for the majority rule is that a defendant cannot be heard to complain of an error which works to his advantage. He is not thereby prejudiced. Smith v. State (1953) 222 Ark. 650, 262 S.W.2d 272; Blankenship v. Commonwealth (1952) 193 Va. 587, 70 S.E.2d 335, 338; Calicoat v. State (1923) 131 Miss. 169, 95 So. 318 (overruling Rester v. State (1916) 110 Miss. 689, 70 So. 881. In Blankenship the Court said:

'If, for some reason satisfactory to them (the jury), they mistakenly believe that an accused is not guilty of the higher grade of offense charged, and find him guilty of a lesser grade, it is difficult to see how the mitigation is harmful to the accused.'

A fortiori, when the defendant requests that the lesser degree of the offense be submitted to the jury as a possible verdict or fails seasonably to object when that occurs, there is an additional reason for declining to disturb a verdict based on that alternative. In State v. Gottstein (1920) 111 Wash. 600, 191 P. 766, 767 the Court said:

'While the trial court, as we view the evidence, would have been justified in submitting to the jury first degree murder only, yet the defendant, having requested instructions on murder in the second degree and manslaughter, cannot now complain because his request was * * * granted. If, under the evidence, it was error to submit the question of murder in the second degree, the defendant by his request invited such error.'

In a strongly worded dictum in Lasecki v. State (1926) 190 Wis. 274, 208 N.W. 868, the Court repudiated the identical argument advanced by the defendant in the instant case. Characterizing the defendant's position as playing his game with loaded dice, the Court recognized his purpose as being to obtain a reversal while at the same time saving by a claim of double jeopardy the benefit of the acquittal of murder in the first degree. The Court indicated that it would decline to administer the rules of law so as to work such an injustice in the name of justice.

With the policy considerations and rationable which underlie the majority view we are in full accord. The supporting authorities are assembled in three Annotations found in 21 A.L.R. 622, 27 A.L.R. 1100, and 102 A.L.R. 1026 and in 40 Am.Jur.2d 788, Sec. 533.

In the instant case the presiding Justice saw fit to define for the jury the requisite elements of voluntary manslaughter and afford the jury an opportunity to render a verdict finding defendant in one alternative guilty of manslaughter. No objection was taken to the charge in this respect. On the contrary, at the close of the instructions counsel for the defendant addressed the Court's attention to the fact that he had 'repeatedly, at least four times, * * * expressed the elements of murder and only expressed the law of manslaughter once.' The presiding Justice thereafter and in obvious response to this objection gave further instructions with respect to manslaughter as a possible alternative verdict. The Court then inquired if these instructions were satisfactory to which counsel for defendant responded affirmatively. We conclude that the defendant is precluded from claiming aggrievement either with respect to the giving of the manslaughter charge or the verdict which resulted therefrom.

The State produced and caused to be...