State v. Lillibridge, 81-362-C

• Decision Date: 17 December 1982
• Docket Number: No. 81-362-C,81-362-C
• Citation: 454 A.2d 237
• Parties: STATE v. Charles LILLIBRIDGE. A.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 237

454 A.2d 237

STATE v. Charles LILLIBRIDGE.

No. 81-362-C.A.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Dec. 17, 1982.

Dennis J. Roberts, II, Atty. Gen., Kenneth P. Madden, Asst. Atty. Gen., for plaintiff.

William A. Dimitri, Jr., Oleg Nikolyszyn, Providence, S. Thomas Cotroneo, Johnston, for defendant.

OPINION

SHEA, Justice.

This is a criminal appeal by the defendant, Charles Lillibridge, who was found guilty of manslaughter after trial in the Superior Court. In April 1980 a Washington County grand jury charged the defendant with violation of G.L.1956 (1969 Reenactment) § 11-23-1, as amended, by P.L.1980, ch. 247, § 3. He was tried before a justice of the Superior Court and a jury in February, 1981. At the close of the state's case, the defendant moved unsuccessfully for judgment of acquittal. He moved for acquittal, again, unsuccessfully, at the close of all the testimony. The jury found the defendant guilty of manslaughter. He then moved for new trial, which motion was denied. He now appeals from the judgment of conviction and from the denial of his new-trial motion. We affirm the judgment entered below.

On April 17, 1980, Arlene Lillibridge, wife of defendant, died of a shotgun wound to the neck. Most of the events leading up to the shooting are not in dispute. At the time of the incident, defendant lived in a house on Old Depot Road in West Kingston, Rhode Island, with his wife, Arlene, his daughter Sharon, his step-daughter, and also an unrelated woman named Deborah Quigley.

On the day of the shooting, defendant, by his own admission, had been drinking. In fact, Ms. Quigley testified that defendant had consumed quite a few drinks before he arrived home at approximately 4 p.m. At about 6 p.m., when all the members of the Lillibridge household were present, Sharon's boyfriend, Keith Greene, arrived. Shortly thereafter, defendant became engaged in a squabble with Sharon. During the argument, he struck her. At this point, Keith intervened and began fighting with defendant.

The police were summoned to the scene and broke up the fight. As Sharon and her boyfriend left the premises, defendant threatened Keith by announcing that he would "shoot his ass with pellets" if the young man returned to the house.

After everyone had left the house except Charles Lillibridge and Ms. Quigley, defendant went to the garage and obtained a shotgun. He brought the weapon into the house and placed it behind a rocking chair. He then sat down in the rocking chair and fell asleep. The defendant corroborated this sequence of events. However, he added that he loaded the shotgun and put an extra cartridge into his pocket during his walk from the garage to the house. Mr. Lillibridge said he had intended to fire the gun into the air to scare Sharon's boyfriend in the event he returned.

What happened next is in dispute. Ms. Quigley said that she did not actually see Arlene Lillibridge enter the house but that she herself was sitting watching the television and knitting in the same room where defendant was asleep in the rocking chair. According to her, when Mrs. Lillibridge came into the house, she began "hollering about [how] she was going to get a restraining order and [that] Keith could come upon her side of the house * * *." Ms. Quigley testified that defendant responded, but she could not remember what he said. She stated that the Lillibridges argued and that "out of the corner of [her] eye" she saw them begin to fight physically. However, she did not actually see what happened, in spite of the fact that she was only a few feet from the altercation. She explained that she had focused her attention on the television and her knitting since fights like this between the Lillibridges were not unusual. She turned around, when she heard the gun go off, in time to see defendant and his wife lying side by side facing each other on the couch. She said that defendant was crying and that he said "Oh, my God, I killed her." The gun was not in defendant's hand at that time, but rather on a table, which, it later turned out, was some eleven feet across the room from where the couple lay. The defendant instructed her to call the police and "tell them he just shot his wife."

The defendant's version differed from Ms. Quigley's. He said he was dozing in the rocking chair when he was awakened by his wife shouting at him that she owned half the house and that "anybody could come in that house that wanted to * * * she had the gun to my head and said she was going to blow my brains out." After trying to talk her out of it, the two struggled for the gun, but Lillibridge never gained control of it; his wife outweighed him by ninety-five pounds and was "pretty strong." This struggle occurred in front of the kitchen doorway, and during the altercation the gun discharged as they fell onto the couch. The defendant claimed that when the weapon went off, it flew across the room and landed on a table, eleven feet away. He directed Ms. Quigley to call the police. Mr. Lillibridge denied that he ever intended to kill his wife.

The police testified that after he was informed of his rights, defendant made several statements including "I killed her" and "I've done pretty crazy things in my time, but I never meant to kill--never meant to hurt anyone." The officers noticed defendant had a cut with blood around it on the palm of his right hand. When asked about it, defendant said, "It must have happened when the gun went off."

The medical testimony established that the victim died of a "gaping" gunshot wound to the neck. The state deputy medical examiner testified that the manner of death was homicide. He also said that the thumb and first finger of the victim's left hand were blown away. There was a residue of grease, smoke, and powder on the palm of the left hand, indicating that the victim had been holding onto the muzzle end of the gun when it discharged. The medical examiner testified further that the wounds he had observed on the victim could either have occurred in a struggle involving two people who tripped and fell, discharging the gun, or have been received by the victim when she was sitting or lying down on the sofa. In either case, he testified that the muzzle of the gun must have been held in a horizontal position. He also testified that the victim's arms were not long enough to allow her to have her hands on the trigger mechanism while the muzzle of the gun was at or near her neck.

The gun in question was a double-barreled shotgun with no stock. The butt end of the instrument, instead of a stock, had sharp metal edges. It was equipped with a separate trigger for each barrel, which triggers could be fired individually or together. Each trigger, however,...