State v. McDowell, 20211
| Citation | 266 S.C. 508,224 S.E.2d 889 |
| Decision Date | 04 May 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 20211,20211 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of South Carolina |
| Parties | The STATE, Respondent, v. Johnnie McDOWELL, Appellant. |
Harry Pavilack and G. Paul Joseph, Jr., Myrtle Beach, for appellant.
Atty. Gen. Daniel R. McLeod and Asst. Attys. Gen. Joseph R. Barker and Richard P. Wilson, Columbia, and Solicitor J. M. Long, Jr., Conway, for respondent.
Appellant, Johnnie McDowell, was convicted of murder in the commission of armed robbery and sentenced to death under Section 16--52 of the 1962 Code of Laws, as amended. He appeals, challenging his conviction and sentence because of alleged errors in the trial, and the alleged unconstitutionality of the death penalty as cruel and unusual punishment under the State and Federal Constitutions. We affirm.
Appellant was convicted under an indictment charging him with the murder of William F. Vereen and Roy Hamilton, who were residents of the State of Florida and visiting in the State of South Carolina at the time. The State relied upon circumstantial evidence, incriminating statements made by appellant to the officers, and admissions to a cellmate.
The victims, Mr. Vereen and Mr. Hamilton, left their homes in Florida on February 4, 1975 to visit relatives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They carried on their persons money in excess of $1200.00, mostly in bills of $100.00 denomination. While the exact time of their arrival in South Carolina on February 4th is not shown, witnesses testified that appellant, carrying his brother-in-law's Remington 12-gauge automatic shotgun, which he had tried to sell for $100.00, was seen leaving a store, near Conway, South Carolina, with the two victims at approximately 8:30 p.m. on that date. Thereafter, between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m., the victim Vereen entered the office of the Conway Motor Inn and registered for two persons, paying for a week in advance with a $100.00 bill taken from an envelope containing other bills of the same denomination. There were two other occupants who remained in Vereen's car, but the persons on duty at the Motor Inn could not identify them because the rain at the time obscured their view. The motel room assigned to the victim Vereen and another person was never occupied.
The appearance of Vereen at the motel to register was the last time either of the victims were seen alive. The next day (February 5th), about 4:30 p.m., Vereen's car was found near a bridge on a dirt road in a swamp area near Conway. The inside of the car had been burned and was still smoldering. The officer who discovered the car found bloodstains, shotgun shells, and several coins nearby. Vereen's body was recovered from adjacent swamp waters shortly after the car was found and Hamilton's body was found about two (2) days later, on February 7, 1975, in the same swamp waters after rescue teams had searched the area for two days.
An autopsy of the bodies showed that both victims died of shotgun wounds to the chest, Vereen having been shot twice and Hamilton once. The examining physician was unable to determine, scientifically, the time of death; but fixed it at approximately 4:00 p.m. on February 5, 1975, based upon the history of the case. His estimate, however, of the time of death was of doubtful value due to the qualifications placed thereon by him.
The murder weapon was never found, but a firearms expert testified that the breech marks on the shells, found at the automobile, matched those on a shell recently fired from the shotgun which appellant had in his possession when he left the store near Conway on the night of February 4th in the company of the victims. The expert testified that the shells were fired from the same gun.
About 11:30 p.m., on February 4th, 1975, after appellant and the victims left the store near Conway together, appellant was seen alone in the Army-Navy Club in Mrytle Beach. He had a considerable amount of money with him at that time. After about an hour there, he went to the Oasis Club in Myrtle Beach where he spent in excess of $300.00 over a period of approximately three (3) hours and displayed other money, including at least three (3) one hundred ($100.00) dollar bills. When he left the Oasis Club, he was taken by a taxi cab to the home of one of the female entertainers and paid the cab driver with a one hundred ($100.00) dollar bill.
One Jesse Cooley, a cellmate, testified that appellant told him during a conversation that he and a partner had killed two men from Florida with a shotgun and had taken over $1100.00 from their bodies.
Appellant testified at the trial. His defense was essentially an alibi. He at all times denied the charges, but his testimony at the trial conflicted with some of the oral statements made to the police shortly after his arrest.
Certain exceptions charge that the trial judge erred in failing to grant appellant's timely motion for a directed verdict of not guilty because of the alleged insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the charges of murder. We have not attempted to set forth all of the testimony, but only the main facts upon which the State relied. After a careful consideration of the entire record, we are convinced that the evidence and the reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom sustain the conclusion reached by the jury that appellant committed the murders as charged.
Other exceptions allege that error was committed in permitting a jeweler to testify as to a test made with the watch of the victim Hamilton in order to determine how long it would run under water.
The time of the murder was a crucial issue. The State's theory was that appellant committed the crime at some time between 8:30 p.m. on February 4, 1975, when the victims were last seen alive and in the company of appellant, and 11:30 p.m. when appellant was seen alone at the Army-Navy Club in Myrtle Beach. Appellant's contention was that the murder took place on February 5th, 1975, when he was able to produce alibi witnesses.
The State used the watch to help establish the time of death. When the body of the victim Hamilton was removed from the water, the officers noticed that his wrist watch, which was not waterproof, had stopped at 10:30. However, approximately fifteen (15) minutes after the watch was removed from the water it began to run again continuing for twelve (12) minutes before stopping at 10:42. Upon such observation of the watch. The officers carried it to a professional jeweler and watch repairman who was permitted to testify, over objection, that he restored it to good operating condition and then immersed it in water so as to determine how long it would take the watch to stop under such conditions. The jeweler testified that the watch stopped running four (4) minutes...
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...1983); Pennsylvania v. Zettlemoyer, 500 Pa. 16, 76-77, 454 A.2d 937 (1982), cert. denied 461" U.S. 970 (1983); South Carolina v. McDowell, 266 S.C. 508, 516, 224 S.E.2d 889 (1976); Tennessee v. Austin, 618 S.W.2d 738, 741 (Tenn.), cert. denied 454 U.S. 1128 (1981); Smith v. Texas, 683 S.W.2......
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...attempt to deceive the polygraph examiners and influence his results admissible to show consciousness of guilt); State v. McDowell , 266 S.C. 508, 515–516, 224 S.E.2d 889 (1976) (voluntary statements of defendant, "concerning ways in which detection of his guilt might be avoided [i]f he sub......
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State v. Bennett
...315 (1991) (no prejudice resultant from trial court's ruling where witness is able to make point before the jury); State v. McDowell, 266 S.C. 508, 224 S.E.2d 889 (1976) (trial court's limitation of argument to jury did not deprive defendant's ability to make point). [328 S.C. 267] 8. PERSO......
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State v. Stokes
...315 (1991) (no prejudice resultant from trial court's ruling where witness is able to make point before the jury); State v. McDowell, 266 S.C. 508, 224 S.E.2d 889 (1976) (trial court's limitation of argument to jury did not deprive defendant's ability to make point). Accordingly, Stokes fai......