Watkins v. People

• Decision Date: 06 December 1965
• Docket Number: No. 20906,20906
• Citation: 158 Colo. 485,408 P.2d 425
• Parties: Roosevelt WATKINS, Plaintiff in Error, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Defendant in Error.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 425

408 P.2d 425

158 Colo. 485

Roosevelt WATKINS, Plaintiff in Error, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Defendant in Error.

No. 20906.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

Dec. 6, 1965.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 27, 1965.

Richard J. Bernick, Denver, for plaintiff in error.

Duke W. Dunbar, Atty. Gen., Frank E. Hickey, Deputy Atty. Gen., John E. Bush, John P. Moore, Asst. Attys, Gen., Denver, for defendant in error.

DAY, Justice.

The plaintiff in error, defendant in a criminal case in the Denver District Court, will be referred to by name or as defendant.

He was found guilty by a jury of second degree murder, and to a judgment of conviction and a sentence of thirty to forty years in the state penitentiary he brings writ of error. In the summary of argument he cites as error the giving of certain instructions by the court, the refusal to give certain other instructions tendered by him, and the admission of evidence in two particulars.

For an understanding of Watkins' chief assignments of error directed to the instructions given to the jury, a recital of the evidence in greater detail than is customary is deemed necessary including evidence of a course of relevant behavior by Watkins beginning earlier in the day on which the homicide was committed. This is because Watkins' defense is an unusual one--that he was suffering from traumatic amnesia. That he committed the offense is not denied. In fact, there were a number of eye witnesses to establish it. He disclaims, however, any knowledge of the crime.

On Saturday, December 3, 1960, Watkins, who had been paid on the previous day, started the subsequent fateful day in midmorning in the company of two friends. After purchasing a fifth of liquor, the three companions went to the residence of one of them and amongst the three the full bottle of spirits was consumed. After that convivial session Watkins went to an establishment in the same section of the city where he commenced gambling and drinking more whiskey. He remained on there until about one thirty or two o'clock in the afternoon. Pocketing his winnings, he then proceeded to the 715 Club. This particular situs was later to be the scene of the crime. The purpose of this first visit to the Club was to pay a debt he owed to one 'Chef' who had given food to the defendant on credit. 'Chef' was not there, but Watkins met one Hardin and (quoting Watkins' own words) 'then began to feel what I was drinking so I gave him some money [40.00] to keep for me.'

Upon leaving the 715 Club, Watkins again met some friends and returned with them to the place where he had previously gambled. There his drinking and winnings continued apace until late in the afternoon. Just prior to leaving the game and the premises, someone sold Watkins a gun for a price somewhere between six and ten dollars in order to have funds with which to 'get in' the game. Watkins placed the gun in his belt and then left for home. He slept approximately one half hour, and then about 7 P.M. departed for a bar located next door to the 715 Club. There he watched a televised boxing match while imbibing beer and more whiskey. When the match was over, some time before nine o'clock in the evening, he returned to the 715 Club. There he had one or two more glasses of beer. Presumably for the purpose of again attempting to contact 'Chef,' Watkins walked to the kitchen. At that point he was observed by one James Stripling, a porter at the Club, who noticed his hand going through a dutch door in the direction of the steam table. Stripling, on seeing this, cautioned, 'You can't take nothing.' Another employee, a woman, approached the area and heard Wakins say that he didn't want anything, that he was just 'playing.' Stripling, in the meantime, had come out of the kitchen and entered the bar, where he replaced some trash cans behind the bar. About that time Watkins was heard to say, 'I am going to kill that son of a bitch.' Just as Stripling was about to return from behind the bar, he was approached by Watkins who was on the customer's side. Watkins pointed the gun close to Stripling's head and announced that if he didn't apologize he was going to kill him. A witness testified that his language was: 'Take it back or I will blow your damn brains out.'

At that point the decedent, Marvin Hawkins, the Club bartender, had his attention drawn to the 'encounter' between Stripling and Watkins. He came near the two of them and inquired as to what was going on. Watkins repeated his threat, and Hawkins on hearing it took a blackjack from a concealed place behind the bar and dealt him a blow on the head. Watkins was not knocked off his feet, but instead (in the words of an eye witness) 'just turned the gun around and shot Mr. Hawkins' between the eyes, killing him instantly.

At the trial Watkins took the stand in his own behalf. He testified that he had now know that the gun he had purchased and was carrying with him was loaded. He said he had no recollection of the threat he had made to Stripling or of his shooting Hawkins. Under cross examination, upon being asked whether he had killed Marvin Hawkins, the defendant replied, 'No, sir.' Questioned as to how he knew he did not kill Hawkins, he said, 'Well, sir, I am of a religious belief, and I know if I had killed a man I would know it. And I definite [sic] didn't kill him.'

It was the theory of the defense--a view supported by the expert testimony of a Dr. Manns--that 'a blow on the head, as the witnesses testified was suffered by him [Watkins] will cause traumatic amnesia, one of the consequences or results of which will wipe out one segment of a man's memory, or will render his thinking and reasoning abilities [sic] to the point that he cannot function as a normal human being.' Dr. Manns gave an opinion that the blow which Watkins had received on the head, coupled with the drinking, 'might have caused his memory to be selectively blocked out, as it appeared was the case from Watkins' testimony, and could have put him in a state of traumatic amnesia which would render him wholly incapable of forming criminal intent or being able to understand the nature or probable result of his act.' Alternatively, it was argued by the defense that Watkins acted under intoxication, in self-defense or as a result of provocation.

The trial court instructed the jury, inter alia, with reference to the offenses of first and second degree murder, voluntary and involuntary manslaughter, and also pertaining to justifiable homicide. In addition, instructions were also given the jury concerning the character of traumatic amnesia and self defense, together with an instruction limiting their effect when the accused himself initiates the affray.

Watkins' first assignment of error concerns the trial court's instruction on the nature and effect of traumatic amnesia. The court's instruction was as follows:

'The Court instructs you that traumatic amnesia, or shock, as used in these instructions, refers to that condition or result of the defendant, Roosevelt Watkins, of being in such a dazed, confused, semi-conscious or unconscious condition and state of mind as to be wholly incapable of forming the necessary criminal intent to commit the crime charged, or of knowing or understanding the nature or probable result of his acts; and if you find that at the time of the alleged homicide the defendant was in such condition, then, your verdict must be Not Guilty as to First Degree Murder.'

The defendant objected to limiting the instruction to First Degree Murder and tendered an instruction requiring the jury to find Watkins not guilty of either first and second degree murder if they found that he was suffering from traumatic amnesia at the time of the criminal act. In his motion for a new trial, defendant suggested that a proper instruction should even exonerate him from voluntary manslaughter as well. In his writ of error defendant maintains that a proper instruction should have been given directing the jury that one suffering from the effects of traumatic amnesia could not be criminally liable at all. We do not agree with the defendant's contentions. The instruction as to traumatic amnesia--under the circumstances in this case--was properly limited to first degree murder; and the evidence, even under the defendant's theory, also supports a conviction of second degree murder.

It is beyond dispute that the physical blow inflicted upon Watkins, the effect of which he predicates his claim of traumatic amnesia, was the direct outgrowth of the assault he was making upon Stripling. No evidence exists in the record which would tend to support any other thesis. Similarly, no evidence was presented which would tend to break the causal connection between the defendant's assault upon Stripling and the blow inflicted upon the defendant's head by Hawkins in coming to Stripling's aid.

The crucial question posed for our determination is: May one who has thus precipitated a fracas and as a result has been hit on the head and rendered semi-conscious or unconscious, maintain that he is not criminally responsible for any degree of homicide above involuntary manslaughter, or that he is not criminally responsible at all? We hold that what occurred here after the blow falls well within the orbit of what might have been expected to happen under the circumstances. One could well anticipate that a person assaulted with a deadly weapon might himself render such a blow or otherwise act in such a manner as to cause the gun...