Warnell v. Com.
Decision Date | 04 December 1953 |
Citation | 262 S.W.2d 683 |
Parties | WARNELL v. COMMONWEALTH. |
Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
Paul R. Huddleston, Bowling Green, for appellant.
J. D. Buckman, Atty. Gen., Zeb A. Stewart, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
This is the second appearance of the appellant, Roy Glen Warnell, in this court. The first case presented an appeal from a judgment whereby appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder, by strangulation, of Mrs. Virgie Stone. The judgment was reversed because the court was of opinion that Warnell v. Commonwealth, Ky., 246 S.W.2d 144, 148, February 8, 1952.
During the 1952 April term of the Warren Circuit Court an indictment was returned which accused Glen Warnell of being an accessory before the fact to the wilful murder of Mrs. Virgie Stone committed by feloniously aiding and abetting Rochie Bledsoe in the premeditated act of exposing her to severe cold while knowing she was in a helpless condition and unable to provide for herself. Upon trial appellant was convicted and his punishment fixed at 21 years' confinement in the penitentiary.
The opinion in the first case stated in detail the facts. We pointed out the unsatisfactory character of the testimony given by Bledsoe and indicated that his contradictory statements were not of that quality of evidence which is acceptable. It was remarked that the sheriff had testified that Bledsoe had related to him three different versions of the manner of Mrs. Stone's death and that the coroner had testified that Bledsoe had told him Mrs. Stone was not dead at the time Warnell let them out of the car. That trial resulted in a verdict that Virgie Stone had died by strangulation while in the car based upon the testimony of Bledsoe to that effect.
The quality and worth of Bledsoe's testimony or statements were not enhanced after this case had been reversed and remanded.
The new record discloses that Bledsoe, while serving time at the Kentucky State Reformatory at La Grange, again recanted and, in the presence of the clinical psychologist, Harold E. Black, Parole Officer of the 8th Judicial District, Ben Logan, Director of the Division of Corrections of the Department of Welfare of Kentucky, Dr. W. E. Watson, and counsel for Glen Warnell, for the fourth time changed his story and gave a sworn affidavit to the effect that Warnell was not responsible for the death of Virgie Stone. (Bledsoe, at the second trial, stated that he gave this version because of personal threats that had been made by Warnell who was also in the penitentiary).
This was not the end of Bledsoe's abrupt changes. At the second trial, he gave these conflicting statements concerning Mrs. Stone's condition at the time she was taken from the car and he started up the road to the uninhabited tenant house:
He later testified:
'
The foregoing is an abandonment of the theory that Mrs. Stone froze to death and the return of Bledsoe to the original theory that she was strangled by Warnell while in the car.
And again:
On redirect examination he stated that he knew she was drunk but was not sure whether she was living or dead at that time and on recross examination he testified this way:
And again:
And again:
'
We must bear in mind the fact that...
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Weaver v. Com.
...must be disregarded. Of course, absent Payne's testimony, there was no evidence to support a conviction. He relies on Warnell v. Commonwealth, Ky., 262 S.W.2d 683 (1953). However, in Warnell, the witness continuously changed his story four or five times with regards to the actual facts of t......
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Howard v. Com.
...was uncorroborated, as is required by RCr 9.62. We consider these grounds in the order enumerated. Appellant relies upon Warnell v. Commonwealth, Ky., 262 S.W.2d 683, in support of his contention that the evidence was inadequate to warrant submission to the jury. We believe the Warnell case......
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Johnson v. Com.
...indicted and convicted as an accessory to wilful murder by means of deliberate exposure of the victim to freezing. See Warnell v. Commonwealth, Ky., 262 S.W.2d 683 (1953).) At any rate, Warnell presumably raised objection to the manslaughter instruction. It seems safe to assume that the def......