State v. White
| Decision Date | 03 May 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 46342,46342 |
| Citation | 244 La. 585,153 So.2d 401 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Forrest K. WHITE, Jr. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
A. B. Cavanaugh, William R. Tete, William B. Baggett, Lake Charles, for defendant-appellant.
Jack P. F. Gremillion, Atty. Gen., M. E. Culligan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Frank T. Salter, Jr., Dist. Atty., Jack C. Watson, Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellee.
The defendant, Forrest K. White, Jr., is appealing from his conviction on a charge by bill of information with aggravated battery 'in and upon one Johnny Odom, by striking him with a dangerous weapon, to-wit: a hammer, in violation of R.S. 14:34,' 1 and his sentence thereunder to serve 2 years at hard labor in the tate penitentiary, relying for the reversal thereof on a number of errors alleged to have been committed during the course of the trial. 2
The incident on which the charge is predicated occurred on the afternoon of October 25, 1961, in a Cessna 180 plane flying over a remote portion of Calcasieu parish, the plane having been chartered by the defendant, a real estate broker and appraiser owning his own agency in Lake Charles, and piloted by Johnny Odom, a student at McNeese College in this same city, and an employee of the owners of the plane, Louisiana Flyers. Inasmuch as the version of the incident from the standpoint of the pilot and that of the defendant are irreconcilable, we think it necessary to give a short resume of both in order that we may properly evaluate and dispose of the errors alleged to have been committed, particularly those forming the basis of Bill of Exceptions Nos. 2, 9, and 15.
It is the state's contention that the plane was chartered by the defendant with the intention of killing the pilot and himself in such a manner as to simulate accidental death in a plane crash so that his family might benefit from his personal insurance of $45,000 in view of the double indemnity clauses for such a death in many of his policies; as well as that carried by the plane owners, $25,000 of which was payable without contest, the insurer reserving the right to litigate or settle for any amount above that to the maximum limit of $50,000 a seat.
Odom, testifying as the prosecuting witness, stated that after he and the defendant had been in flight 1 hour and 15 minutes and were circling an area some 5 miles north of Chennault Air Force Base at an altitude of about 800 feet and traveling at near level in a southwesterly direction approximately 140 miles an hour, his 'head was slumped forward and I was sort of knocked down in my seat,' his first thought, since he knew of no objects that high in the vicinity, being that 'a bird had crashed through the windshield and struck him on the head.' Raising his head and noting the windshield was intact, he turned to look in the rear seat of the plane where the defendant was seated and 'saw Mr. White with the ball peen hammer in his hand and a glove on his hand, and he hit me here.' When White drew back to hit him again, he grabbed the hammer between the head and White's hand and struggled with him for its possession until eventually both simultaneously lost control of it and it fell to the floor, from where defendant frantically sought to recover it. Being unsuccessful and with his feet in the rear seat, the defendant lay across the back of the front seat with his right side against the instrument panel and his head in the windshield, in which position Odom hit him hard with his fist in the face and neck until he realized, after three blows, there was insufficient room for him to manage a swing sufficient to inflict much damage on the defendant, and he therefore forced him back into the rear seat, from which position White sought to choke him by putting his hands about his throat and pulling with a force sufficient to break the rim of the pilot seat, placing the witness in a reclining position strapped to his seat. Although during this time there were several near-crashes into trees, he managed to regain altitude and extricate himself by 'brute force' and keeping the defendant, who had no seat belt, off balance through his handling of the plane. Unsuccessful in the attempt to choke him, White several times grabbed the right control column and almost nose-dived the plane into crashes, but Odom was not only able to avoid these also, but, in addition, to overpower the defendant on each occasion. When the Chennault runway was immediately ahead and 'I guess Mr. White, seeing that he had failed in his attempt to kill himself and I also, gave up and just settled into the rear seat area,' until the plane landed and he ran off into the grass, from where he taxied around to the hangar of the Louisiana Flyers. 3
The defendant, taking the stand in his own behalf, denied there was any financial, family, or other personal reason that would cause him to attempt to commit suicide in the manner contended by the state. He readily gave full information as to his assets and liabilities and stated he not only held policies on his life with the New York Life Insurance Company in the amount established by the state ($45,000, some of which were paid up), but others with different companies totalling around $100,000 in all, many of these having been held by him four years while one, for $15,000, with double indemnity clause, had been applied for the month previous to the incident but had not been consummated because of his inability to find time to take the physical examination. He testified his home and furnishings were insured for $50,000 and his business assets for $10,000; that he owned a half interest in a house in Lake Charles appraised at $17,500 and a fourth interest in a duplex in the same city appraised at $12,000, the latter being occupied by his mother, widow of a former superintendent of education for Calcasieu parish; that the income from his business ran from $18,000 to $23,000 a year, the turnover in his business account being from $2,500 to $3,500 a month; that his three bank balances together usually averaged from $2,000 to $4,000, while a homestead savings account had several thousand dollars in it. He stated his wife owned outright, or an interest in, some 6 tracts of land scattered throughout the state totalling approximately 860 acres, from which she realized sizable mineral royalties (at least $27,000 during the previous five years), and also stock in 2 corporations valued at $10,000. His liabilities, in the form of loans and mortgages, were estimated to be approximately $35,000.
The defendant further testified he had chartered the plane in question--as he had done a number of times previously--for the sole and express purpose of giving further consideration to property in various parts of Calcasieu parish he was appraising for the Lake Charles Harbor & Terminal District in connection with a right-of-way it needed for a new channel on Calcasieu river, and also one for a servitude for an electric line Gulf States Utilities Company, Inc., proposed to erect, and was, in particular, retracing some of the ground covered in planes piloted by Johnny Odom, the prosecuting witness, on two previous trips when he had been accompanied by men from these concerns. He stated that two of the right-of-way representatives of Gulf States had been in his office that morning for a lengthy conference (both, because of their interest in the property he was to survey that afternoon, were invited to accompany him on the flight but declined because of previous appointments), and he had discussed taking another appraiser with whom he was working and who had been with him a few days prior thereto when they viewed some of the property from a boat, but had made no definite appointment, although he did drop by on his way to the field to see if this man wanted to accompany him but he was working outside his office.
He stated he occupied the rear double seat of the four-seated plane with a large geodetic survey map and his binoculars, which were needed in viewing the land, to a large extent marshy and difficult to reach by land, the brief case, of the 'attache' or 'dispatch' type being placed open on the front seat next to the pilot, and in which was all of the material usually carried with him in connection with his work (including the ball peen hammer, wooden stakes, work tablets, pencils, ruler, etc.). After he had covered all of the properties in which his employees were interested with the exception of some to the north of Chennault Air Force Base, which he desired to view through the windshield as they approached it, and as he was moving over the right front seat, the pilot, who assisted in the move by placing the brief case on the floor in the front, undertook to force homosexual attentions on him by grabbing his privates, a course he continued to relentlessly pursue even after defendant managed to settle himself in the front seat with the case--picked up from the floor--open on his lap, and despite his order that the plane be returned immediately to the hangar. He stated Odom became very excited and increasingly violent as the sexual attack continued, and, when still repulsed, apparently irrational, tilting the plane at a sharp angle in an attempt to force the defendant through the right door which he (the pilot) was opening. During the ensuing struggle Odom grabbed the ball peen hammer by its head from the open case on defendant's lap and struck him in the throat region with the handle. Whereupon the defendant managed to wrest it from Odom, and, realizing the seriousness of Odom's effort to kill him to avoid exposure of this indecent behaviour, he turned to the offensive and struck Odom a couple of times, the blows landing on his head and the hammer, in the struggle that followed, falling to the floor. Odom continued his effort to kill the defendant by regaining possession of the hammer and maneuvering...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Tennors, 2005-538.
...did not allow the court to ascertain immediately if the conviction shown was a felony. The Louisiana Supreme Court in State v. White, 244 La. 585, 153 So.2d 401 (1963), found the facts to be that a juror, on the fifth day of a six-day trial, advised the trial judge that he thought he was di......
-
State v. Square
... ... Although counsel for the defense has argued in brief that Dorris was subject to challenge for cause as an impartial juror because Dorris had belonged to the Ku Klux Klan in the past, and because he was then a member of the White Citizen's Counsel, this was not made the subject of a bill. Consequently, the trial court did not rule upon the question, and it is not properly presented for review here ... In any event, in our review of the record we find that Dorris no longer subscribes to the principles of ... ...
-
State v. Turner, 37,162-KA.
...empaneling and swearing of the jury and "at any subsequent proceedings for the discharge of the jury or juror." See State v. White, 244 La. 585, 153 So.2d 401, 409 (1963) ([O]nce a juror has been qualified as competent to serve and sworn—all in the presence of the defendant—he cannot therea......
-
State v. James
... ... It crossed Jackson Avenue in a Uturn. Intending to question James and his companion, the officers forced the automobile to the curb ... As Officer Duffy stepped from the police car, James stuffed a piece of cellophane, [246 La. 1042] containing what appeared to be a white tablet, in his mouth and jumped from the automobile. He had some paper currency in his hand. Officer Duffy shouted, 'Police$ Stop$' But, James ran. The officers caught and subdued him. Apparently, he had swallowed the cellophane. The officers picked up approximately $50.00 in currency, ... ...