State v. Perkins

• Decision Date: 18 March 1949
• Docket Number: 30600.
• Citation: 32 Wn.2d 810,204 P.2d 207
• Court: Washington Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE v. PERKINS.

204 P.2d 207

32 Wn.2d 810

STATE v. PERKINS.

No. 30600.

Supreme Court of Washington, En Banc.

March 18, 1949

Arthur Bruce Perkins was convicted of two first degree murders, and he appeals.

Judgment affirmed.

SIMPSON and SCHWELLENBACH, JJ., dissenting.

Appeal from Superior Court, Thurston County; D. F Wright, judge.

Stanbery Foster and Ernest L. Meyer, both of Olympia, for appellant.

Van R Hinkle, Ralph R. Gulby, Smith Troy and Frank P. Hayes, all of Olympia, for respondent.

ROBINSON Justice.

This is a capital criminal case in which the appellant was charged in a two-count information, with having committed two first degree murders on or about December 15, 1947. The murder of Geneva Jessup was charged in count I, and the murder of her husband, Ed Jessup, in count II. In each count, it was charged that the alleged murder was committed by beating the victim about the head with a rock and by stabbing with a knife. The appellant, upon arraignment, pleaded guilty to the information, but, upon motion of the attorneys appointed by the court to conduct his defense, was permitted withdraw that plea and enter a plea of not guilty.

At the close of a long trial, beginning March 15, 1948, and ending on March 23, the jury returned a verdict of guilty as to each count, and also the following special verdicts:

'We, the jury, duly impaneled to try the above entitled case, do find that the death penalty shall be inflicted as to count one.'

'We, the jury, duly impaneled to try the above entitled case, do find that the death penalty shall be inflicted as to count two.'

A motion for a new trial assigning six grounds was filed, and denied in due course. The matter again came Before the court on April 8, 1948, as shown by the following minute entry of that date:

Minutes of Thursday, April 8, 1948

'Court in Session

Wright, J., Presiding

'No. C-1361 The State of Washington vs. Arthur Bruce Perkins alias Arthur Lambert

'This matter came on regularly Before the court at 2:00 p.m. for the signing of Judgment and Sentence. The State of Washington appeared by Van R. Hinkle, prosecuting attorney for Thurston County; and defendant, Arthur Bruce Perkins, alias Arthur Lambert appeared in person and by his attorneys of record, Stanbery Foster and Ernest L. Meyer. Counsel having announced they were ready to proceed, Mr. Hinkle informed the court he had prepared an order entitled Judgment and Sentence, to which defense counsel stated they had no objections as to the form thereof. Court informed defendant that he could speak on his behalf, if he so desired, Before sentence were passed upon him, whereupon the defendant arose, approached the court's bench and stated that all statements heretofore made by him on the stand during his trial were the truth.

'Court then pronounced sentence as follows: 'The jury, duly impaneled to try this cause, has found you guilty on each count and the court finds that you are guilty, and it is the judgment of this court that the finding of the jury be confirmed, and on each count you are found to be guilty of murder in the first degree, and the Judgment providing for the death penalty is being signed in your presence.'

'Defense counsel orally gave notice of appeal to the Supreme Court of the State of Washington, and stated they would enter a formal notice in accordance therewith. Court granted defense counsel's request that the cost of Statement of Facts be borne by Thurston County. (Italics ours.)

'Signed this 8th day of April, A. D. 1948.

'D. F. Wright

'Judge.'

The oral notice of appeal was followed by timely filing of the statement of facts and briefs on appeal, and oral argument was heard in this court on October 21, 1948.

The ten errors assigned by appellant have necessitated a careful reading and re-reading of the six hundred and thirty-three pages of transcribed testimony given by the more than forty witnesses who testified in the case, as well as an examination of a number of the fifty-eight exhibits admitted during the trial. As a basis for the discussion of the errors assigned on appeal, it will, unfortunately, be necessary to make a rather full factual statement and to quote at length from the oral evidence ane exhibits in the case.

The oral evidence establishes that the dead bodies of the Jessups were found in the little house in which they had lived for a couple of years situated in a well-settled district in Olympia, just north of the state capitol grounds and about a block and a half south of the Thurston county court house, at about four p.m. on Tuesday, December 16, 1947. A neighbor who discovered the bodies relayed the information to sheriff Tamblyn about 4:30, and he immediately went to the scene of the murders with several of his deputies. The Olympia chief of police, with some of his men, arrived at the same time; also, Mr. Hinkle, the county prosecutor, with one of his assistants. The officers made a preliminary examination of the bodies and the premises.

Mrs. Jessup's body was lying on a davenport near the center of the small living room, with some pillows under her head upon which were large quantities of blood. It was apparent, from a number of jagged head wounds, that she had been repeatedly struck by some irregular-edged instrument. She also had four gaping stab wounds in the vicinity of her left breast, bruises upon her right chest and on her neck, and some cuts on her hands.

Mr. Jessup's body was on the floor of the little bedroom near the bed which he had apparently occupied for some indeterminate time Before he was murdered. He was in his night clothes, but his day clothing was on the chair near the bed. His wounds were very similar to those of Mrs. Jessup, but he had, in addition, a wound on his forehead and had evidently received a severe blow on the right eye.

One of the officers discovered, between the cushions of the davenport, a flat bloodstained stone, about the size of a man's hand, but thicker. It had irregular, rather sharp, edges, and weighed about two pounds. Another officer found a butcher knife in the sink, lying on a bloodstained washrag with which, it was thought, the knife had been washed. There were no fingerprints on either of these objects, nor were any significant fingerprints found in a thorough examination of the house made a few days later.

The officers also searched for a considerable sum of money ($117) which, they were informed by a sister of Mrs. Jessup, was kept in the house in a plastic container. This was not found that night, but was found, intact, a few days later by a deputy sheriff while searching the house for fingerprints.

In examining Mr. Jessup's day clothing, which was found on a chair by his bed, the officers noted that one of the pockets of his trousers had been turned inside out. But since there was no indication of breaking and entering, and, so far as the officers could then determine, nothing of value was missing from the house, they adopted the theory that the murders were not committed by burglars but by someone with whom the Jessups were acquainted and who entered the house with their knowledge and permission.

The officers considered it to be of first importance to the state to determine when the crimes were committed. After some discussion as to ways and means, prosecutor Hinkle summoned, from Tacoma, Doctor Charles P. Larson, a specialist in pathology of long and varied experience, including a term of several years with the American Forces in Germany as medical examiner for the War Crimes Commission.

Doctor Larson arrived at the Jessup house at 6:15 p.m., and spent about two hours examining it and its contents, and in directing the taking of certain photographs which are in evidence. He first made a preliminary examination of the bodies. He arrived at the conclusion that the Jessups had been dead about twelve hours, but frankly stated that, since he had no way of determining what the temperature of the room had been during the day, there might be a fifty per cent error either way in his conclusion, which was based on an estimated temperature of seventy degrees. If the temperature had in fact been higher than that, and there is some evidence in the record indicating that it was, he would have said the Jessups had been dead longer than twelve hours, for the higher the temperature the longer it would have taken for rigor mortis to set in.

According to Doctor Larson's estimate, the murders were probably committed about six or seven a.m., December 16th, or may have been committed as much as six hours earlier or later than that. According to the appellant's pre-trial confessions, which will be detailed later in this opinion, and also according to his oral evidence given when he voluntarily took the witness stand in his own defense, the crimes were in fact committed between two and three o'clock a.m., December 16th. The bodies were moved to undertaking parlors about 10:30 p.m., and Doctor Larson at once began external examination of the bodies, followed by a thorough and complete autopsy, including an examination of all internal organs.

The external examination of the body of Mrs. Jessup showed that she had many head wounds which were inflicted by some such instrument as the rock heretofore mentioned, and four stab wounds in the region of the left breast. These had been made by a knife, with a blade just about an inch in width, which is the width of the knife which was found in the sink and is in evidence as state's exhibit No. 42. One of the stab wounds was superficial, the point of the blade having been checked by the breast bone (sternum). The other wounds were deep, but not entirely through the body the knife having encountered the ribs which form the posterior wall of the chest cavity. ...