State v. Pannell

• Decision Date: 30 May 1985
• Docket Number: No. 16144,16144
• Citation: 175 W.Va. 35,330 S.E.2d 844
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of West Virginia v. Talbert Mazel PANNELL.

Page 844

330 S.E.2d 844

175 W.Va. 35

STATE of West Virginia v. Talbert Mazel PANNELL.

No. 16144.

Supreme Court of Appeals of

West Virginia.

Submitted April 24, 1985.

Decided May 30, 1985.

Syllabus by the Court

1. The giving of an incomplete instruction does not constitute reversible error where consideration of the instructions as a whole cures any defect in the incomplete instruction.

2. Where the police have probable cause to believe that people may be in

danger, their duty to swiftly investigate this possibility empowers them with a privilege which rises above common law prohibitions against trespass.

3. "... [I]t is usually not error for the trial court to comply with a request of the jury in the matter of re-reading to them instructions that they may wish to hear." State v. Price, 114 W.Va. 736, 740, 174 S.E. 518, 520 (1934).

4. West Virginia Code § 62-12-2(c)(1) (1984) does not allow the trial court to make its own finding that the defendant used a firearm, where the matter was tried before a jury.

Catherine A. McMullen, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charleston, for appellee.

Lee H. Adler, Adler & Baker, Beckley, for appellant.

BROTHERTON, Justice:

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Raleigh County finding the appellant, Talbert Mazel Pannell, guilty of the attempted murder of Thomas Durrett.

On May 16, 1981, around 2:00 P.M., Talbert Pannell entered his mother's house, where he lived with his mother and siblings. Pannell was angry and upset. He slammed the front door as he came into the house and then began pacing the floor. Thereafter he broke a picture on the television set and would not let his brother-in-law answer the telephone when it rang. Pannell's actions were so erratic that his sister called the police on the 911 emergency number and requested their assistance. While she was on the telephone with the police she saw Pannell open a drawer in the nightstand where Pannell's mother kept a .22 revolver. She assumed Pannell was taking the gun from the drawer and she relayed this to the police. Shortly after the call, Pannell pulled the telephone out of the wall.

Police Officer James Milam was the first to arrive at the Pannell home. Outside of the house he talked to Pannell's mother and sister about the disturbance. They told Officer Milam that Pannell had a gun. When Officer Milam attempted to approach the house, Pannell began to yell at him. Pannell told the officer that if he did not have a warrant to get off of the property, or he would have to be carried off. Pannell was continually putting his hand in his vest toward the belt area. Officer Milam radioed for support.

Police Chief Thomas Durrett arrived at the scene approximately one minute later. Pannell again began yelling at the police officers, asking whether they had a warrant. Chief Durrett recognized Pannell and began walking toward the porch where Pannell was standing. When Durrett reached the bottom of the flight of steps leading to the porch, the appellant calmed down somewhat and appeared to invite Chief Durrett into the house. Pannell turned, walked into the house and closed the screen door between the two. However, when Chief Durrett reached the third step of the ten-step stairway, a shot was fired from inside the house. The bullet lodged in the metal frame of the screen door at a seventy-degree angle. Chief Durrett drew his revolver and fired a single shot, wounding Pannell. When the officers found Pannell he said that he was sorry, that he did not mean to shoot.

A Raleigh County jury convicted Talbert Pannell of the attempted murder in the second degree of Chief Thomas Durrett on October 30, 1981. He appeals to this Court alleging several errors, which we now address.

I.

The appellant first objects to the trial court's amendment of proposed defense instruction 17. Instruction 17 in its original form read as follows:

The Court instructs the jury that if you should believe from the evidence that the State has proved only that the defendant acted irrationally or that the defendant acted in reckless disregard for the safety of others, or that the defendant only accidently discharged the firearm, then the Court instructs the jury that you must acquit the defendant of an attempt to commit murder.

The italicized words were deleted by the judge before he gave the instruction to the jury. This was an error. The seventy-degree angle of the bullet when it hit the metal frame, plus Talbert Pannell's statement that he did not intend to shoot, would support a theory of an accidental discharge of the weapon. The instruction, therefore, would have been more complete if the deleted phrase had remained. Nevertheless, an incomplete instruction does not necessarily warrant reversal. Syllabus point 4 of State v. Stone, --- W.Va. ---, 268 S.E.2d 50 (1980) instructs: "The giving of confusing or incomplete instructions does not constitute reversible error where a reading and consideration of the instructions as a whole cure any defects in the complained of instructions." Other instructions, as well as the remainder of instruction 17, made it clear that the jury could not convict Talbert Pannell of attempted murder without first finding that he intended to fire the gun. ¹ Therefore, deleting the phrase from the instruction does not warrant reversal. ²

II.

The appellant also argues that he was entitled to an instruction on attempted voluntary manslaughter for using too much force in repelling a trespasser. Where the police have probable cause to believe that people may be in danger, their duty to swiftly investigate this possibility empowers them with a privilege which rises above common law prohibitions against trespass. See, e.g., State v. Leandry, 151 N.J.Super. 92, 96-97, 376 A.2d 574, 576 (1977); Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 205-206 (1965); See also State v. Cecil, --- W.Va. ---, 311 S.E.2d 144, 149 (1983) ("Emergency doctrine" an exception to Fourth Amendment warrant requirement.). In this case the police received a distress call from a young woman alleging a domestic problem. When the police arrived, an angry man with a gun greeted them and ordered them to leave. Under these circumstances the police had probable cause to believe that people were in danger, and, therefore, had a duty to investigate. Entry by the police on the property of the defendant, while it may have been technically a trespass, was not actionable, and gave the defendant no right to use force to evict them.

III.

Finally, the appellant alleges certain errors in the re-reading of instructions and the court's finding that Pannell was ineligible for probation. After instructions and arguments to the jury, the trial court submitted an interrogatory to the jury asking it to find whether the appellant used a gun, pursuant to W.Va.Code § 62-12-2(c)(1)(ii) (1984). ³ The jury deliberated and returned a verdict, finding "Talbert Pannell guilty in the second degree with a strong recommendation of probation." The interrogatory was returned unanswered. The trial court refused this verdict as incomplete. At this point one of the jurors asked the court to repeat the instructions concerning degrees. The court repeated certain instructions submitted by both the State and the defense, over a defense objection that its instruction dealing with acquittal should also be read. The trial court then submitted the...