State v. Ridgely

Decision Date18 November 1968
Docket NumberNo. 18840,18840
Citation251 S.C. 556,164 S.E.2d 439
CourtSouth Carolina Supreme Court
PartiesThe STATE, Respondent, v. Brian D. RIDGELY, Appellant.

W. K. Charles, Jr., Ted Wyndham, Greenwood, for appellant.

Solicitor William T. Jones, Greenwood, for respondent.

LITTLEJOHN, Justice.

The appellant-defendant, Brian D. Ridgely, was found guilty (with recommendation to mercy) of the murder with a blunt instrument of his eighteen-month old stepdaughter, Lindy Ann Morris.

At the conclusion of the evidence offered by the State the defendant moved for a directed verdict. The motion was denied and the defendant offered no evidence. After the jury found a guilty verdict, his counsel moved for judgment non obstante veredicto, and in the alternative, for a new trial. Both motions were refused. He was then sentenced by the trial judge to life imprisonment as required by the applicable statute.

This appeal charges error on the part of the trial judge in refusing the defendant's motions for a directed verdict, for judgment non obstante veredicto, and for a new trial. It further alleges error in admitting certain testimony hereinafter discussed.

Because much of the evidence relied upon by the state to prove the guilt of the defendant is circumstantial, and because the defendant challenges both the sufficiency of the total evidence and the competency of portions thereof, it is necessary to review the evidence in some detail.

The nineteen-year old defendant, while in military service and stationed at Ft. Gordon, Georgia, married Mrs. Brenda Joyce Morris on January 6, 1966. In April, 1966, the defendant was discharged from the army, and he, with his wife and two step-children, moved to Abbeville, South Carolina, where he was employed by Hale Manufacturing Company. About June 1, 1966, they moved to Greenwood and Mrs. Ridgely continued her employment with Hale in Abbeville, but the defendant at the time of the offense charged was unemployed.

Mrs. Ridgely was granted custody of her two children in Aiken after a court contest with their father, Mr. Morris. Morris had entered into a marriage ceremony with the mother of the two children prior to their birth, but it developed that Morris was never divorced from a previous marriage and accordingly the Morris marriage was void and her marriage to Ridgely was apparently valid.

Commencing about June first Mr. and Mrs. Ridgely lived in an apartment house in Greenwood. She continued to work in Abbeville, several miles away, and used the family car to commute to her job. After the same became disabled she left the two children with a Miss Evans who kept them as needed when Mrs. Ridgely stayed nights in Abbeville. They were left with Miss Evans on Monday prior to the death of the child on Wednesday while Mrs. Ridgely was away in Abbeville working. She returned on Tuesday long enough to visit with the children and told Miss Evans that she wanted to leave them there until Thursday, which would be June 30.

On Wednesday, June 29, the defendant went to the home of Miss Evans and got the two children, Brenda, age three, and Lindy, age eighteen months, stating that he would keep them until about 5 o'clock of that day.

At approximately 3 o'clock the same afternoon the defendant phoned the police department of the City of Greenwood and stated that he had gone up the street from the apartment to a store, leaving the two small children alone, and that when he returned the smaller child was missing. He also said that he had found a note which read in part: 'I had to have some money.'

When the investigating officers arrived at the defendant's apartment Ridgely confirmed the telephone report and delivered to the officers a purported kidnap-ransom note which read as follows: 'If you want your baby back you will have $500 within the next 72 hours. Will be in touch.'

The officers, along with Ridgely, searched the house and surrounding area but failed to find Lindy, his eighteen-month old stepdaughter.

After the defendant sent for the investigating officers he called his wife, who was at work in Abbeville, and proceeded to go for her and returned her to Greenwood, returning to the apartment with his wife about 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

The next contact with the police came around 7:30 or 8 o'clock when the defendant and his wife returned to their apartment after going out to eat. Two officers were further checking the area around the apartment, and these officers, in response to a telephone call from the police department, asked the defendant and his wife if they would ride down to the police station with the officers. Mr. and Mrs. Ridgely agreed to accompany the officers and they left for the police station around 9 o'clock p.m. Mr. Morris had driven up from Aiken and was also there.

Discussions with the defendant and his wife at the station produced no additional information and Mrs. Ridgely asked the officers to take her back to the apartment to check over some papers concerning the custody proceedings in court involving her children. It is the testimony of the officer who took her back to the apartment that Mrs. Ridgely at the time continued to believe the children's natural father (Mr. Morris) had had something to do with Lindy's disappearance, and that no one yet had any idea that the child was dead or that Ridgely had had anything to do with her disappearance.

After his wife returned to the police station, the officers continued to talk to Ridgely. They informed him that they had tried to check everything but had failed to find any evidence of the child's whereabouts and that although the police were not accusing anyone, since he was the last person seen with the missing child the police would like to tall with him further. He was informed of his constitutional rights in a manner hereinafter described, but Lt. Fortson of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, in charge of the endeavors to locate the missing child, testified that Ridgely was not under arrest and that he was free to leave at any time. Lt. Fortson asked Ridgely if he would go to Columbia to take a lie detector test and explained to him 'that it would be free and voluntary on his part, that he did not have to go. I explained the purpose that we were going for. * * * I told him it would be free and voluntary, that nobody would attempt to force him to take the lie detector.' Ridgely is quoted as saying, 'I'll take the test and be glad to answer any questions.'

Lt. Fortson, City Police Officer George Edward Young, and Ridgely left Greenwood around 10 o'clock and arrived at the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Headquarters between 11:30 and midnight. Lt. Fortson testified that Ridgely was not questioned at all en route to Columbia. They had a flat tire on the automobile and all joined in to help put the spare on the wheel.

Upon reaching headquarters Ridgely went with Lt. Wyndham into the room containing the polygraph equipment, and Lt. Wyndham apprised him of his rights as is shown by the following testimony:

'Q. Would you enumerate those rights about which you apprised him?

'A. I advised him that he had a right that he didn't have to say anything unless he chose to do so; anything that he said would be used against him in Court; that he had a right to obtain an attorney; if he didn't have the means to obtain an attorney, that the Court would appoint him an attorney before any questions. I asked him if he wanted an attorney and he said no. And I asked him was he willing to talk about his missing stepdaughter.

'Q. Did he answer that?

'A. He said yes.'

Lt. Wyndham testified that after he had been with the defendant for about thirty minutes, Ridgely revealed that the child was dead and that he knew where the body was because he had taken it out of the house in a suitcase and had disposed of it in some weeds behind his apartment. He said that he was left-handed, and he had printed the ransom note himself with his right hand.

Thereafter Lt. Wyndham left the defendant in the room by himself and returned shortly with Lt. Fortson and Officer Young.

Lt. Fortson testified that at this point he again asked if the defendant would like a lawyer, and the defendant replied in the negative.

Lt. Fortson testified that the defendant then continued to talk:

'He said that no one loved him. Said it was a accident, he didn't mean to do it. Said that while he had the children there at the apartment he took a bath and after he finished the bath he dressed and went to the store to get the cigarettes and milk, but forgot to let the water out of the bathtub; and when he returned to the house that Lindy Ann was in the bathtub scalded to death. He told us that he put her in a suitcase and took her out in the woods behind the apartment, and that he would take us to the body.'

About 1 o'clock a.m. Lt. Fortson, Mr. Young and Ridgely left Columbia to return to Greenwood and went to an area back of the apartment building pointed out by Ridgely and found the unclothed dead body of Lindy Morris at about 2:30 a.m. The coroner was called, and Ridgely was carried to the Greenwood county jail.

A pathologist performed an autopsy later that morning and testified at the trial that in his opinion the child's death 'resulted from a severe fracture of the left side of the skull, with associated hemorrhage into the brain cavity.' Although the pathologist testified that 'the skin of the feet, legs, buttocks, abdomen, hands and forearms showed first and second degree burns, with fairly uniform diffuse intense redness,' and that 'there were additional burns about the face and the anterior chest wall,' it was his opinion that 'the burns did not cause the death.' The pathologist...

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2 cases
  • State v. Al-Amin
    • United States
    • South Carolina Court of Appeals
    • March 3, 2003
    ...of a murdered person is a circumstance which tends to show guilt and should go to the jury to weigh the evidence. See State v. Ridgely, 251 S.C. 556, 164 S.E.2d 439 (1968); State v. Epes, 209 S.C. 246, 39 S.E.2d 769 (1946). In State v. Ridgely, the Supreme Court, quoting State v. Epes, disc......
  • State v. Brewer, 25516.
    • United States
    • South Carolina Supreme Court
    • August 19, 2002
    ...has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way.) (emphasis added); State v. Ridgely, 251 S.C. 556, 164 S.E.2d 439 (1968) (same). Consequently, the trial judge's suppression of appellant's statements gave appellant relief to which she was no......

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