State v. Woodmansee

• Decision Date: 13 December 1930
• Docket Number: 40376
• Citation: 233 N.W. 725,212 Iowa 596
• Parties: STATE OF IOWA, Appellee, v. FRED A. WOODMANSEE, Appellant
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

233 N.W. 725

212 Iowa 596

STATE OF IOWA, Appellee, v. FRED A. WOODMANSEE, Appellant

No. 40376

Supreme Court of Iowa, Des Moines

December 13, 1930

REHEARING DENIED MAY 6, 1931.

Appeal from Polk District Court.--LESTER L. THOMPSON, Judge.

The defendant Fred A. Woodmansee was indicted January 15, 1930 by the grand jury of Polk County, Iowa, for the crime of murder. The defendant pleaded not guilty and on the issue thus joined trial to a jury was had resulting in a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree, and the jury in its verdict recommended the death penalty. The trial court entered judgment on the verdict and imposed the death penalty. Defendant appeals.

Affirmed.

John Fletcher, Attorney-general, Neill Garrett, Assistant Attorney-general, Carl S. Missildine, County Attorney, and Francis J. Kuble, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee.

Harry B. Grund, for appellant.

DE GRAFF, J. MORLING, C. J., and KINDIG, STEVENS, ALBERT, WAGNER, and EVANS, JJ., concur. GRIMM and FAVILLE, JJ., (dissenting).

OPINION

DE GRAFF, J.

One W. F. Knapp, either a short time before or shortly after midnight on December 29, 1929, was most brutally assaulted in his living rooms on the third floor of a building located on the northeast corner of Fifth and Locust Streets, Des Moines. He leased and occupied this building as owner of the Des Moines Trunk Factory. On the 10th day of January, 1930, Knapp died as a result of the assault. He was a man past 70 years of age, but was in good physical condition. He lived alone and so far as the record discloses had no relatives. It is important at this point to visualize the third floor bedroom in which the assault took place, and the following diagram will be helpful in understanding the situation. This room is approximately 11 x 18 feet. It had one window on the west side thereof which faced Fifth Street. There was but one door of entrance and exit to and from this room, and that door opened into the hallway. There was in the room a small alcove used as a dressing room.

The Franklin Hotel is located directly across the street west from the building occupied by Knapp. The lobby and windows of the Hotel face Fifth Street and are directly opposite the entrance to the stairway of the building. There are large windows on either side of the entrance to the hotel and the chairs inside of the lobby are so placed that persons occupying the chairs can look out upon Fifth Street. Briefly stated, anyone sitting in any of those chairs had a full view of the entrance to the trunk factory and to the third floor which had the one window in the bedroom used by Mr. Knapp as his living and sleeping quarters.

[SEE DIAGRAM IN ORIGINAL]

It is evident from the record that on the night of the assault Mr. Knapp was about to retire. He had removed his clothing and was wearing his nightshirt and slippers. It is evident that he momentarily left the bedroom and had walked down the hall to the toilet room and upon his return was surprised in the alcove by his assailant. The record discloses that about 12:30 on the night in question a bellboy, employed by the Franklin Hotel, had occasion to go on an errand to a nearby drugstore and as he left the entrance of the hotel he heard cries for help which apparently came from the bedroom window on the third floor of the building across the street. The boy stopped and listened for a moment and immediately returned and re-entered the hotel and told the incident to the hotel clerk who immediately telephoned the city police department. The bellboy forthwith returned to the street and continued to listen and watch from his post outside the hotel. While he stood there someone closed the one bedroom window, but even with the window closed the boy continued to hear cries for help. This boy was acquainted with Knapp and he testified that he recognized the voice calling for help to be that of Knapp. The boy further testified that he could hear what appeared to be someone striking or hitting something. He stood guard watching the bedroom window and the entrance way until the police officers arrived and entered the premises. He testified that no one left the building prior to the arrival of the police and that no one entered the building except the police officers. The policeman on the beat (Officer Seehan) arrived on the scene at the same time as the two officers called by the hotel clerk. These three officers rushed up the stairs to the third floor and went to the only entrance door of the bedroom occupied by Knapp. These officers, as they went up the second flight of stairs and approached the third floor heard someone scream: "My God, you are killing me, you are killing me." They testified that this statement was repeated several times. Upon reaching the third floor the officers rushed through the little hall to the bedroom entrance door where again they heard this voice. Officer Brown was in the lead. He tried to open the only door of entrance, but it was locked. He then kicked in the door and the officers entered the bedroom. The electric drop light in the alcove was on, but the electric light in the bedroom was not on. The officers flashed their lights and the first thing they observed was Mr. Knapp on the floor in the alcove. Knapp was covered with blood and was sitting in a pool of blood. At once Officer Brown asked him, "Who did it, and where is he?" Knapp replied: "Look out, he is behind the door," meaning the only entrance door to the room. Officer Brown wheeled, pulled the bedroom door toward him and there found the defendant in hiding behind the door. The officer led the man directly in front of Mr. Knapp and asked Knapp if this was the man that beat him up and Knapp said: "Yes it was." The officer then asked Knapp if he knew the man and Knapp replied that it was Dr. Woodmansee. Knapp then said to Woodmansee: "Oh Doc, why did you do this? Doc, why did you do this?" The officers testified that Knapp kept saying that over and over again. Woodmansee made no reply, but Brown asked Woodmansee what he was doing up there, to which Woodmansee replied that he heard cries from that room as he went along the street and went up to the room. It must be remembered that there was but one door of entrance to this bedroom and when the officers arrived that door was locked. The keys which would lock and unlock the door were in Woodmansee's pocket, as hereinafter explained. Immediately after the officers entered, a search of the room was made and an iron bar was found. This bar was wrapped in brown paper. It was about an inch in diameter and about fifteen inches long. It was found eight or ten feet west of Mr. Knapp in the center of the floor of the bedroom inside the fold of Mr. Knapp's coat, and in the pocket of the coat was Knapp's diamond ring and money. Blood covered the paper around this iron bar. The officers also found a work stool about two feet west of Knapp in the alcove and another work stool under the bed. These stools were broken and bloody and apparently had been used in the assault. Hair was found in the crusts of blood on the iron bar and on the stools. There were some clothes on the floor south of the bed and there was blood on the woodwork of the opening between the alcove and the bedroom. There was blood on the front of the entrance bedroom door and on the door casing and on the bed. Mr. Knapp, at the time the officers entered, was bleeding freely. At that time, there was blood on the face, glasses, hands and the clothing of Woodmansee. Knapp's head was cut in many places. His neck and chest were cut. His hands were covered with blood and were bleeding and some of the fingers were so badly smashed that the finger bones protruded.

At the time the officers started to carry Knapp on a stretcher from the room, he told the officers to get the key in the bedroom door, which key opened the only door to the room and to get the key to his trunk factory. The keys were not in the door, but Woodmansee was searched and all the keys were found in Woodmansee's right coat pocket. Woodmansee was then taken to the police station. He was not talkative. He showed no evidence of intoxication. Officer Shaffer testified that he smelled Woodmansee's breath and could detect no odor of intoxicating liquor and that Woodmansee was perfectly sober and walked all right.

Officer Brown testified that in his conversation with Woodmansee he asked him how he could get into the room when the door was locked. Woodmansee made no reply. He also asked Woodmansee if there was anybody there when he went to the room and Woodmansee replied that he passed somebody in the hall and asked the officer if he did not pass someone. Brown told Woodmansee that "nobody could get out of here but you, and you ain't out."

It may be stated at this time that for three or four nights preceding the fatal assault, Woodmansee had been observed by patrons and employees of the Franklin Hotel sitting in one of the chairs in the lobby facing Fifth Street and the building occupied by Knapp. Woodmansee was not a guest or patron of the hotel. Some of the persons who had seen Woodmansee sitting near the window in the lobby had engaged in conversation with him.

After Woodmansee had been arrested, taken to jail and placed in a cell, he burned holes in his clothing and at the spots where there were blood stains. His explanation was that he was smoking a cigarette and had his coat over his head and shoulders to keep the light out of his eyes and to keep warm that he went to sleep with a cigarette in his mouth and that his clothing took fire from the cigarette. There were spots of blood on his coat and on the legs of his trousers, but there were no holes in his suit at the time of his arrest. His shirt, while he was in jail,...