Everett v. State

97 So. 2d 241
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedAugust 14, 1957
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 97 So. 2d 241 (Everett v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Everett v. State, 97 So. 2d 241 (Fla. 1957).

Opinion

97 So.2d 241 (1957)

George Lowell EVERETT, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Supreme Court of Florida.

August 14, 1957.
Rehearing Denied October 29, 1957.

*242 Cornett, Duncan & Leath, Panama City, for appellant.

Richard W. Ervin, Atty. Gen., and Reeves Bowen, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

TERRELL, Chief Justice.

Appellant, George Lowell Everett, was indicted, tried and convicted for the murder of Lou Ellen Jones. The indictment charged that the murder was committed on January 18, 1955, by choking deceased with a short length of cord. To the indictment defendant entered a plea of "not guilty," by reason of insanity at the time of the commission of the act.

Pursuant to Sections 909.17 and 917.01, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., the court appointed Doctors C.H. Denser and Irving T. Clark, eminent psychiatrists, who examined defendant as to his sanity as of the date of the murder and subsequent thereto. At a hearing held in open court on May 23, 1955, for the purpose of determining defendant's sanity as of the time of the trial, both doctors testified that defendant was mentally capable of understanding the seriousness of the charge against him, was competent to plead thereto, to assist his counsel at the trial, and that he knew right from wrong. The trial judge then entered an order that he was sane and competent to make a rational defense to the indictment. The judge by the same order limited his findings to that point, expressly stating that the question of the sanity or insanity of defendant at the time of the commission of the offense charged was a question for the jury. The cause went to trial before a jury at the conclusion of which a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree without recommendation of mercy was rendered. A motion for new trial was denied and the court imposed the death penalty. This appeal was prosecuted from that judgment.

Appellant relies on twelve questions for reversal. Questions I and V are argued together. We understand them, when considered together, to be as follows: (1) Since *243 it was error to admit evidence tending to show that appellant killed deceased while perpetrating or attempting to perpetrate burglary or rape, the court committed error in charging the jury that if appellant killed deceased while committing or attempting to commit either of said offenses, the jury should find him guilty of murder in the first degree regardless of the existence of premeditated design; (2) that it was error to admit evidence tending to show that appellant stated the car in which he went to Panama City was unlawfully taken at Dothan, Alabama.

The indictment charged that the murder was committed "from a premeditated design to effect death" of deceased. This court has many times held that such a charge is proven by showing (1) that the murder was committed with a premeditated design or (2) that it was done while perpetrating or attempting to perpetrate burglary, robbery or rape, or any of the other felonies set forth in Section 782.04, Florida Statutes, F.S.A. Sloan v. State, 70 Fla. 163, 69 So. 871; Sutton v. State, 84 Fla. 98, 92 So. 808; Pope v. State, 84 Fla. 428, 94 So. 865; Southworth v. State, 98 Fla. 1184, 125 So. 345.

The automobile used by appellant belonged to C.E. Sloop, Jr., with whom appellant lived and with whom he was in custody as a parolee, result of having been convicted of crime in Federal Court. Sloop testified that appellant had the car without his consent at the time he murdered deceased. Even though this testimony was stricken, appellant's confession, admitted over objection, showed that he [appellant] took the keys to the car from Sloop's home, took the car from Dothan and went to Panama City. After the murder was committed appellant proceeded to Mobile, Alabama, where he left the car, wrote Sloop and told him where to find it. Both questions are without merit.

Regardless of what this evidence shows, there was no error committed in admitting it. Since viewing the evidence in sum, in the effort to establish appellant's insanity, it was proven by different witnesses that he was an avowed thief, that he had repeatedly stolen bicycles, automobiles, watches, money and other articles, that he had thrice been committed to the Georgia Correctional Training School, that he served a sentence in a federal reformatory for stealing and that when he murdered deceased he was paroled to Mr. Sloop, having been convicted at Montgomery, Alabama, for stealing an automobile.

Since appellant's plea to the indictment was "not guilty" by reason of insanity when he committed the crime, he now contends that such a plea eliminated all issues except that of insanity and removed the right of the state to prove the murder, the burglary or the rape. He says, in other words, that the defense of insanity places in issue the one question of whether or not defendant was sane at the time he committed the murder and being so, the state was precluded from proving the burglary or the rape.

In response to this contention it is sufficient to point out that under Section 909.02, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., all pleas to an indictment or information are abolished except nolo contendere and guilty or not guilty. In view of this statute when appellant pleaded "not guilty" by reason of insanity at the time of the commission of the crime as a matter of law he pleaded "not guilty" and gave notice as required by Section 909.17, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., that he intended to rely upon the defense of insanity. It appears from the record that at all times during the trial appellant conceded that the state had the burden of proving his guilt. It does not appear that appellant objected to any evidence offered by the state on the theory that it was devoid of power to prove the murder or any incidence of it. The court instructed the jury, without objection on the part of appellant, that under the plea of "not guilty" the burden was on the state to prove the guilt of defendant including every material element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Having witnessed this *244 procedure from start to finish of the trial without objection appellant is not now in position to contend that the state was devoid of right or power to prove the murder, the burglary or the rape. The burden of proving insanity was on appellant. If his contention as to procedure had been followed, the state would have had nothing to prove. It is our view that appellant's plea placed in issue every material allegation of the indictment, that the state carried the burden of proving the elements of murder in the first degree and that it was committed in the perpetration or during the attempt to perpetrate rape, burglary or any offense condemned by Section 782.04, Florida Statutes, F.S.A.

Since Points II and III were submitted together by appellant, we will dispose of them in the same manner. By Point II it is contended that the trial court, on cross-examination, prejudicially restricted the evidence of Court appointed medical experts. He says that the rulings of the trial court confined counsel to facts literally in evidence and that such procedure unnecessarily impaired the full exposition of the value and correctness of the expert witness opinion.

We have examined this contention, including the rules governing the cross-examination of expert and other witnesses and find no merit whatever to the contention. The evidence relied on was that of Dr. Denser, a psychiatrist; he was put through a long and exacting cross-examination by appellant covering more than one hundred pages, a careful reading of which fails to show that the trial court abused his discretion.

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Bluebook (online)
97 So. 2d 241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/everett-v-state-fla-1957.