Flowers v. State

139 N.E.2d 185, 236 Ind. 151, 1956 Ind. LEXIS 248
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 27, 1956
Docket29,336
StatusPublished
Cited by106 cases

This text of 139 N.E.2d 185 (Flowers v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Flowers v. State, 139 N.E.2d 185, 236 Ind. 151, 1956 Ind. LEXIS 248 (Ind. 1956).

Opinion

Emmert, J.

This is an appeal, in forma pawperis, from a judgment on a verdict finding appellant guilty of murder in the first degree and fixing the penalty at death. The assignment of errors questions the actions of the trial court in overruling appellant’s plea in abatement, and his motion for new trial.

*155 *154 On December 10, 1956, the Governor commuted appellant’s sentence to imprisonment for life. The rule *155 is well settled in this state that an applicable statute by operation of law becomes a part of the judgment as though written therein. Dowd v. Sims (1950), 229 Ind. 54, 95 N. E. 2d 628; Woodward v. Murdock (1890), 124 Ind. 489, 24 N. E. 1047; State ex rel. Reed v. Howard (1946), 224 Ind. 515, 69 N. E. 2d 172; Mellot v. State (1942), 219 Ind. 646, 40 N. E. 2d 655. Likewise, Section 17 of Article 5 of the Constitution of Indiana, which granted the Governor the power to commute this sentence, becomes a part of this judgment, as well as the official act of commutation. Appellant is still held in custody by authority of the judgment herein, which is still final, so that appellant’s right to appeal therefrom is not diminished or extinguished by the commutation.

The appellant filed a plea in abatement to the indictment in which he charged that the order of the court for the drawing of the grand jury which returned this indictment, under §4-3320, Burns’ 1946 Replacement, required the drawing to be at 10:00 o’clock A.M. Daylight Savings Time instead of specifying the time as Central Standard Time as required by §2-4705 (b), Burns’ 1946 Replacement (Supp.), and that by reason thereof the action should abate. The state did not demur to this answer, nor did it file any reply, nor was any trial had on this issue. The court set arguments on the plea in abatement for November 30, 1954, and on this latter date, in the presence of appellant, his counsel and the Prosecuting Attorney, the court overruled the plea in abatement. This procedure was unauthorized and an improper way to dispose of this answer. However, it is quite apparent the parties and the court considered the plea as if it had been tested by a demurrer, and cause No. 37 of appellant’s motion for new trial charged, “the court committed error of law in sustaining the State of In *156 diana’s Demurrer to the Plea in Abatement filed by this defendant.” When a party agrees to a manner for determining his rights in the trial court, he cannot claim error on appeal because this procedure was adopted. State ex rel. Cline v. Schricker (1949), 228 Ind. 41, 45, 88 N. E. 2d 746, 89 N. E. 2d 547. See also Fritz v. State (1912), 178 Ind. 463, 469, 99 N. E. 727. The plea in abatement failed to assert noncompliance with the statutory requirements as to time was in bad faith, nor did it show harm to the substantial rights of appellant. The presumption is every requirement of the statute on drawing a grand jury was complied with except the drawing was one hour earlier than it should have been. This is not sufficient to hold it an illegal grand jury. The facts in Rudd v. State (1952), 231 Ind. 105, 107 N. E. 2d 168, where we held a plea in abatement good, furnish no' basis for a reversal of this case.

The motion for a new trial challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict of guilty. Although we examine the evidence on appeal to see if there was substantial evidence of probative value to prove each material allegation of the offense charged, we do not weigh the evidence nor judge the credibility of the witnesses and we only consider the evidence most favorable to the State, and the reasonable and logical inference to be drawn therefrom to determine whether there was a failure of proof. Kallas v. State (1949), 227 Ind. 103, 83 N. E. 2d 769; Todd v. State (1951), 230 Ind. 85, 101 N. E. 2d 922.

We have carefully examined the entire transcript consisting of more than 1,000 pages, and from the bill of exceptions containing the evidence, the following facts were disclosed:

*157 *156 Appellant and Iona Kennedy (generally called lone) were married about three years before the homicide, *157 and until May or June, 1954, were residing in a room of a rooming house kept by Catherine Helmick at 113 Harding Avenue in Terre Haute. Mrs. Kennedy had two small children by a former marriage, and all four lived in the same room. The mother worked as a waitress, and appellant had a light truck with which he did odd jobs and hauling. During May or June of that year, Mrs. Kennedy sued appellant for divorce, which was granted some weeks before the homicide. When the suit was first filed, appellant had moved elsewhere, but later moved back to a room at 111 Harding Avenue, where he lived and ate his meals. The parties saw each other at various times even when the divorce was pending, but about three weeks before the homicide, Mrs. Kennedy was keeping company with one Leland Fish, and was planning to move from her room at 113 Harding Avenue. This relationship came to the notice of appellant, who, without success, attempted to effect a reconciliation, and several witnesses testified appellant said he was going to kill Mrs. Kennedy. He tried to borrow $20 to buy a pistol, tried to borrow one, and did have a .32 revolver a day or so before Monday, October 4, 1954. On this evening he came to Mrs. Helmick’s kitchen, asked if Mrs. Kennedy was going to move and said, “Kate, I am not going to kill lone in your back yard but I will wait until she moves and then I am going to kill her.”

At about 7:45 o’clock the same night appellant asked Mrs. Helmick to go upstairs and get lone, and Mrs. Helmick sent her daughter, Shirley Sankey, to convey the message to Mrs. Kennedy, who came downstairs and went into the back yard to see appellant. Mrs. Sankey heard them quarreling, and then heard somebody running on the cinders in the back yard, and heard Mrs. Kennedy “hollering, ‘Please don’t Elmer,’ ‘Elmer please don’t.’ ” She heard one shot, and then Mrs. *158 Kennedy scream. Mrs. Sankey ran outside and saw Mrs. Kennedy lying on her back and “Elmer standing over her with a gun in his hand.” “He shot once more straight into her body and her legs quivered and she moved.” “He fired another shot.” After the last shot, “He stood there clicking the gun over her body.” Then he pointed the gun at Mrs. Sankey and “clicked it once.” When the gun was examined at police headquarters it contained three fired cases, and one loaded bullet, the primer of which had been hit by the hammer. Photographs of the decedent show two bullets entered the left side of her chest only a few inches apart.

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Bluebook (online)
139 N.E.2d 185, 236 Ind. 151, 1956 Ind. LEXIS 248, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/flowers-v-state-ind-1956.