State v. Sayles
| Decision Date | 11 January 1916 |
| Docket Number | No. 30394.,30394. |
| Parties | STATE v. SAYLES. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from District Court, Pottawattamie County; E. B. Woodruff, Judge.
The defendant, having been convicted of murder in the second degree, appeals. Affirmed.H. J. Chambers, of Council Bluffs, for appellant.
Geo. Cosson, Atty. Gen., and C. E. Swanson, Co. Atty., of Council Bluffs, for the State.
[1] The accused struck John G. Runyan with his fist but one blow. This happened shortly before 9 o'clock of May 7, 1914, and Runyan died apparently from suffocation about 15 minutes after 11 o'clock the same evening. Appellant contends: (1) That the evidence was not such as to warrant his conviction; and (2) that there was no evidence of murder in the first degree, and for this reason the court erred in submitting whether he was guilty thereof to the jury. Was death caused, or at least hastened, by a blow over the larynx? At the autopsy no external marks were discovered on the body, except “a slight discoloration of the skin over the voice box and windpipe.” An autopsy was held, and, among other things, Dr. Treynor testified:
The physician stated further that many die because of this condition, and often quickly, and that, owing to this condition, a person likely would die more quickly from suffocation.
“Death from dilation of the heart leaves discoloration of the skin that you see in any condition of suffocation from nonæriation of the blood.”
The testimony of Dr. Hennessy was substantially the same, he adding:
That “the lungs seemed distended with air and of darker color than ordinarily,” and that there was no external evidence of death from dilation of the heart. “Whenever there is cessation of circulation, the blood, not being oxygenized, turns purple, manifests itself in purple or bluish color on surface; the same in dilation as in strangulation.”
From this evidence the jury might have inferred that death resulted from the application of force as by a blow over the larynx. Was such a blow struck by the accused? A messenger boy had left his bicycle at the corner of a restaurant in Council Bluffs. Defendant came along with a jug and took the wheel with him to the other corner or beyond when he was seen by the deceased, John Runyan, who stopped him, inquiring what he was going to do with the wheel. Defendant responded that he was taking it for fun, or for a joke, and was going to put it around the corner of the restaurant. About this time several small boys came up. Runyan asked one of them if it was his wheel, saying he had stopped Sayles from taking it, when the latter repeated, in substance, that he had taken the wheel only as a joke. At Runyan's direction some of the boys notified the owner, and he came for his wheel. After some further talk, Sayles started for home saying he would be back again, and returned after a few minutes with Lyons. Runyan seems to have repeated the charge several times, and Sayles as often denied it. Sayles then started away, whereupon Runyan asked him if he was scared. He returned again, when Runyan asked him if he knew his brother Fred, and, as Sayles said he did, sent for him. When he came, Fred said he did not know Sayles. The latter remarked, “You can get acquainted with me,” and, removing his coat, struck deceased. A cigar fell from his mouth, and, as he stooped to get it, he staggered backward. Sayles then struck at Fred Runyan, who dodged the blow, and then knocked him down, and, after being on him a short time, offered to let him up if he would behave himself. Defendant responded, “If you let me up, I will clean the whole Runyan family,” and denounced him with epithets. One witness testified that defendant struck deceased in the chest; five merely that he struck the deceased, but did not describe where. After the trouble deceased went to bed in the bunkhouse for train crews near the roundhouse of a railway company by which he was employed. He was next seen 15 or 20 minutes after 11 o'clock in the evening coming from the water cooler in the roundhouse “choking and pulling at his throat,” and could not talk, and died in a few minutes.
From this evidence the jury might have inferred that the only violence done deceased was the blow of defendant, that this was on the neck over the larnyx, and that by said blow death was caused or hastened, and therefore that the defendant was responsible for the death of the deceased. True, the boy, Withrow, testified that defendant struck deceased in the chest. A witness might easily be mistaken as to the place of contact, and especially where the principals are in close proximity. Much necessarily depends on relative positions and the matter of attention. The other five witnesses did not undertake to say where deceased was hit. The evidence barely excludes the inference that he was injured subsequently. There was no mark on his person other than over his larynx, and there some violence as a blow had been applied. From this evidence the jury might have inferred defendant's blow was on the neck instead of chest and caused death.
[2] II. It will be recalled that immediately after striking deceased defendant struck at Fred Runyan, and was by the latter knocked down, and when on the ground a policeman came up, who was asked on the witness stand, “What was he talking about?” and answered that upon his arrival Fred Runyan said to Sayles that, if he would behave himself, he might get up, to which Sayles replied, “If you let me up, I will clean the whole Runyan family.” Defendant moved to strike the answer as irrelevant and concerning a transaction had “between the witness and the defendant and not the decedent in the case.” It was immediately connected with what had preceded and but a few seconds thereafter, and clearly was a part of the res gestæ, tending to show the feeling he entertained towards deceased in what he had done. State v. Gainor, 84 Iowa, 209, 50 N. W. 947;State v. Jones, 64 Iowa, 349, 17 N. W. 911, 20 N. W. 470; 21 Cyc. 937.
[3] III. One of the errors assigned relates to the examination of Dr. Hennessy:
“Q. You and Dr. Treynor and the coroner talked there about sending that...
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