Varnum v. State
| Decision Date | 18 November 1971 |
| Docket Number | No. 46732,No. 2,46732,2 |
| Citation | 125 Ga.App. 57,186 S.E.2d 485 |
| Parties | N. E. VARNUM v. The STATE |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
The evidence did not authorize instructions on or a conviction of the offense of voluntary manslaughter. No ruling is considered necessary on the remaining enumerations of error.
The accused, Varnum, indicted and tried for the murder of his wife, appeals a conviction and sentence for voluntary manslaughter, following the overruling of his motion for a new trial.
At the time of Mrs. Varnum's death on March 18, 1970, she and the accused were living together in a trailer in the Vista Trailer Park in Augusta, which is about a ten-minute drive from Fort Gordon, where the accused was stationed as a soldier. The Sheppards and the Coons lived in trailers in close proximity. Around 5 p.m. the accused drove home from the post, accompanied by Coon, who was also stationed at Fort Gordon. Mrs. Coon testified that late in the afternoon she went to the Varnum trailer to ask the Varnums to get some milk for her on the next trip to the store, but she did not knock or enter because she heard Mrs. Varnum crying and making a remark something to the effect, 'Oh, just leave me alone, just get away, just get away.' Although Mrs. Coon fixed this incident as before 5 p.m. she was uncertain of the time, and according to the accused an incident of this nature occurred after he came home. He testified that his wife, who was pregnant, 'was kinda irritable and I guess I was in a playful mood and I was nagging at her and she got mad at me and told me to leave her alone, which I did.'
Mrs. Sheppard and Mrs. Coon went shopping around 7 p.m. When they left the area they saw the Varnums outside their trailer, and Mrs. Sheppard left her young daughter (age 4 at the time of trial in June 1970) in the custody of Mrs. Varnum. Shortly thereafter, according to Sheppard, Varnum brought the little girl to Sheppard to interpret what she was saying, and then returned to his trailer with her. Later Varnum went alone to Sheppard's trailer, explaining that his wife and Sheppard's daughter were getting on his nerves, 'acting like a couple of kids.' Sheppard related this incident as occurring between 7:30 and 8 p.m., and stated that he took the hint and brought his daughter home, but he also testified that it was 'pretty close to 9 o'clock or thereabouts' when his wife returned that his daughter 'came across the way.' At this time he saw the Varnums in the doorway of their trailer. The manager of the trailer park visited the area about 9:15 or 9:30 p.m., and engaged in a conversation with Varnum. He observed Mrs. Varnum, who looked out the window, after which 'she started to moseying around in the kitchen.' Varnum fixed the time of this incident between 9:30 and 10 p.m.
According to Mrs. Coon, she and her husband went to bed at 'almost exactly five after ten.' Customarily she did not go to sleep immediately, and she 'would have to imagine, it was possibly 10:30' when she 'heard Dottie (Mrs. Varnum) laugh out loud' and also heard a couple of footsteps. Mrs. Sheppard had been watching television, and when the news came on at 11 p.m. she turned the television off, lay down on a couch for a few minutes, then got up and went to bed. She was familiar with the sound of Varnum's automobile, and heard it leave the area and saw its lights. She estimated the time as about 11:15 p.m., but according to a statement made to a deputy sheriff Varnum said he left the trailer at 11 p.m Varnum testified that after the manager of the trailer park left he and his wife engaged in discussion of a name for their expected child, that she told him she wanted to take a tub bath, that he started the water running in the tub, told her he was going to the post to borrow some money, and that she was in the bathroom when he left about 10:55 p.m. He had lost $90 bowling, and had cashed a check for $40 with insufficient funds on deposit, and had to get $40 to give to a woman at the bank who had initialed the check. His efforts at Fort Gordon to borrow money were unsuccessful. He recalled that according to a clock in an orderly room at the post it was 11:45 p.m., and that the clock on the dash of his automobile, which was sometimes fast and sometimes slow, indicated 11:55. He thought he arrived back at the trailer at midnight or a little later.
In testifying before the jury as to his activities thereafter Varnum stated that he went to the trailer door, started to unlock the door, and discovered that it was unlocked-'the night latch wasn't on.' He entered, started closing the door, and called 'Baby' for his wife, as he always did upon coming home. The lights were out, but he saw someone run out the back door and he ran down the hallway and tripped. He got up, ran back to the living room, got his pistol, and ran back out. Just past Coon's trailer he fired his pistol. He then returned to the trailer and using a switch outside the bathroom, turned on the bathroom light. He saw his wife on the floor, and ran to the Sheppard trailer.
According to Sheppard, it was 11:45 p.m. when Varnum woke him up, hollering and screaming, coming across the lawn saying 'Dewey, Dewey, it's my wife.' When Sheppard asked him what was wrong he had already looked across and noticed Mrs. Varnum lying on the floor of the trailer. Varnum then said, Sheppard went to the Varnum trailer and 'started to give her artificial respiration but she was already cold.' Mrs. Varnum was lying on her back, with her feet and body inside the bathroom, and her head, from the eyes up, in the hallway. She was nude in the area of her hips and breast, and an electric blanket cord was around her neck, tied in a half or square knot, not tight. He returned to his trailer and called for an ambulance. After Sheppard returned Varnum talked to him and said, 'God and I will know who done it and that's all that counts.'
Mrs. Sheppard also woke up, and disregarding Sheppard's request, went to the Varnum trailer. Varnum was 'down over her body, screaming and carrying on' and saying Mrs. Sheppard finally persisted in getting Varnum to leave the trailer, and about this time Mrs. Coon came on the scene. She testified that the sound of Varnum screaming, 'Dewey, Dewey' woke her up at 11:55, and that she woke her husband up, who recalled hearing Varnum say, 'My wife's hurt, my wife's hurt.' She saw Sheppard run across the lawn, and she could see Mrs. Varnum on her back in the trailer, in the position described by Sheppard. Mrs. Sheppard and Mrs. Coon tried to revive Mrs. Varnum, but both immediately concluded from her appearance and examination that sh...
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Parham v. State
...of self-defense which would authorize an acquittal. The error is therefore reversible. Joyner v. State, supra; Varnum v. State, 125 Ga.App. 57, 62-3, 186 S.E.2d 485. 4. In view of the pre-trial publicity of this case, to which nearly all of the jurors asked admitted having been exposed, app......
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Holmes v. State, 64128
...an acquittal, or when his statement, if believed, would have so warranted, there should be a new trial." Accord, Varnum v. State, 125 Ga.App. 57, 62, 186 S.E.2d 485, and Linder v. State, 132 Ga.App. 624(1), 208 S.E.2d We have carefully examined the transcript with regard to the elements of ......
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...a charge and conviction of voluntary manslaughter, Robinson v. State, 109 Ga. 506, 34 S.E. 1017 (1900); Varnum v. State, 125 Ga.App. 57, 62–63, 186 S.E.2d 485 (1971). Later cases have held that if the evidence was sufficient to sustain the indicted offense of murder and the State introduced......
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Thompkins v. State
...convicts of voluntary manslaughter, it is not cause for a new trial if the evidence demanded a verdict of murder. Varnum v. State, 125 Ga.App. 57, 62 (1), 186 S.E.2d 485 (1971); Holmes v. State, 162 Ga.App. 717, 718, 293 S.E.2d 16 (1982). In our opinion the evidence demanded a verdict of mu......