State v. Schmidt
| Decision Date | 28 March 1927 |
| Docket Number | 28436 |
| Citation | 163 La. 512,112 So. 400 |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE v. SCHMIDT |
Appeal from Eighth Judicial District Court, Parish of La Salle; F E. Jones, Judge.
John Schmidt was convicted of murder, and he appeals.
Affirmed.
Henagan & Gaharan, of Jena, for appellant.
Percy Saint, Atty. Gen., and Harry Fuller, Dist. Atty., of Winnfield (E. R. Schowalter, of New Orleans, of counsel), for the State.
The defendant was tried for murder, found guilty as charged, and sentenced accordingly.
The victim of the crime was his stepdaughter. She was asleep in bed with her mother when the fatal blow was struck. The instrument used was a common axe wielded by a wooden handle.
The lifeless body of the girl was carried into an adjacent room where an act abhorrent and unthinkable was committed by defendant.
The indictment was returned against the defendant on September 30, 1926, and counsel were appointed to represent him on October 8th. The case was set down for trial for October 25th, but for some reason went over until November 30th.
On the day of trial the counsel for defendant filed a motion for continuance in which it was alleged that the defense of insanity would be urged and that it was necessary to obtain evidence from the German navy officials; that said information when obtained will show that the defendant was discharged from the German navy about the year 1910 on account of insanity; that evidence of said fact cannot be obtained from any other source, as the original discharge had been lost or destroyed.
The motion for continuance was denied, and this forms the subject of the first bill of exceptions.
The defendant was tried on a general plea of not guilty. There was no special defense made in the trial before the jury that the defendant was suffering from insanity at the time the homicide was committed. Nor was any plea of present insanity submitted to the trial judge either before or during the trial of the case.
The fact, if it were a fact, that the defendant was discharged from the German navy in 1910 on account of insanity, would not be proof even remotely of either present insanity or insanity at the time the crime was committed, unless that fact was followed up by evidence tending to show present insanity or insanity at the time the crime was committed.
The denial of the continuance, even if error, was harmless, and did not prejudice the accused in any manner.
Bill No. 2. A witness Brown was asked:
The objection was made that the testimony was inadmissible for the reason that defendant was on trial for murder and proof of any other crime could not be made.
The testimony was a part of the res gestae. The act of intercourse was committed immediately after the killing, and was so closely connected and linked therewith as to form a component part of the principal fact or transaction, to wit, that of killing.
The general rule is that all that occurs at the time and place immediately before and after a difficulty is admissible as res gestae.
It is a mistake to say that the evidence tended to prove a crime separate and distinct from that with which defendant was charged. Sexual intercourse with the dead body of a human being, however shocking it may be, has not been made a crime.
What has been said with reference to the preceding bill applies to bill No. 3.
Bill No. 4 was reserved to the proof of a confession made by the defendant to the witness Davis Brown; the objection being that the confession was not shown to be free and voluntary.
The trial judge states that the testimony proved beyond any doubt that the statement was free and voluntary, and this is verified by the evidence in the record.
Indeed, it appears that the defendant was prone to talk freely about the killing to any one who approached him and asked him about the killing.
The fifth and last bill was reserved to the overruling of a motion for a new trial.
The motion, in addition to...
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State v. Palmer
...State v. Blount, 124 La. 202, 50 So. 12; State v. Ard, 160 La. 906, 107 So. 617; State v. Cole, 161 La. 827, 109 So. 505; State v. Schmidt, 163 La. 512, 112 So. 400; State v. Norphlis, 165 La. 893, 116 So. 374; State v. Leslie, 167 La. 967, 120 So. 614; State v. Comeaux, 171 La. 327, 131 So......
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State v. Kavanaugh
... ... 605; State v. Breffeihl, 130 La. 904, 58 So ... 763, 40 L.R.A.,N.S., 535; State v. Comeaux, 131 La. 930, 60 ... So. 620; State v. Robinson, 143 La. 543, 78 So. 933; State v ... Bischoff, 146 La. 748, 84 So. 41; [203 La. 28] State v ... Mullen, 160 La. 925, 107 So. 698; State v. Schmidt, 163 La ... 512, 112 So. 400; State v. Williams, 173 La. 1, 136 So. 68; ... State v. Whitlock, 193 La. 1044, 192 So. 697; State v ... Maitrejean, 193 La. 824, 192 So. 361 ... My opinion is ... that Act No. 43 of 1912, so far as it undertakes to make it a ... crime for a person to ... ...
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State v. Pagnotta, 49331
...actual burglary constituted hearsay and was not part of the res gestae, and that therefore it should not have been allowed. State v. Schmidt, 163 La. 512, 112 So. 400. We find that the testimony of Donna Ray Olsen was not hearsay It was relevant evidence which showed an intent to commit the......
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State v. Walker
... ... reads as follows: ... 'To ... constitute res gestae the circumstances and declarations must ... be necessary incidents of the criminal act, or immediate ... concomitants of it, or form in conjunction with it one ... continuous transaction.' ... In State v ... Schmidt, 163 La. 512, 112 So. 400, 401, this court said that ... 'The general rule is that all that occurs at the time and ... place immediately before and after a difficulty is admissible ... as res gestae'. State v. Bradford, 164 La. 423, 114 So ... 83; State v. Dale, 200 La. 19, 7 So.2d 371, and ... ...