Grabill v. State

621 P.2d 802, 1980 Wyo. LEXIS 326
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 12, 1980
Docket5313
StatusPublished
Cited by102 cases

This text of 621 P.2d 802 (Grabill v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Grabill v. State, 621 P.2d 802, 1980 Wyo. LEXIS 326 (Wyo. 1980).

Opinions

ROONEY, Justice.

Appellant-defendant was sentenced to a term of one to five years in the penitentiary after he was found guilty by a jury of violation of § 6-4-504, W.S.1977, child abuse of a person under the age of sixteen.1 He contends error in six respects in appealing from the judgment and sentence of the district court. We affirm, but remand for correction of clerical error.

SUFFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE

Appellant’s first contention of error is that “[t]he evidence was insufficient for the case to go beyond the State’s case in chief, to go to the jury, or to sustain the guilty verdict.”

“The oft-repeated rule by which we test the sufficiency of evidence on appeal of a criminal matter is that we examine and accept as true the evidence of the prosecution, leaving out of consideration entirely the evidence of the defendant in conflict therewith, and we give to the evidence of the prosecution every favorable inference which may reasonably and fairly be drawn therefrom. Stated another way-it is not whether the evidence establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt for us, but rather whether it is sufficient to form the basis for a reasonable inference of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt to be drawn by the jury when the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the State. [Citations.]” Harvey v. State, Wyo., 596 P.2d 1386, 1387 (1979). See Cloman v. State, Wyo., 574 P.2d 410 (1978).

[804]*804Gauged by this standard, the following is part of the evidence which was placed before the jury in the State’s case in chief.

Appellant was living with Donna Snyder and together they had parented a child, Alysia, who was born on August 25, 1979. Donna Snyder returned home at 2:30 a. m. on October 31, 1979 and observed Alysia “sleeping like she normally does.” Donna Snyder awakened at 6:45 a. m. She testified in part:

“Q. What, if anything, did you do after you awoken?
“A. I got up and got my son up; the baby [Alysia] got up at seven o’clock. I fed her, changed her, got my son off to school by eight and the baby and I both laid back down in my bed from eight until ten, and I woke and she was still sleeping. I took her in the front room with me and she woke up and she stayed awake until her eleven o’clock feeding, and I fed her once again.
“Q. Now, what were your observations of the baby at seven a. m.?
“A. She seemed fine to me.
“Q. And then at eleven o’clock on the 31st?
“A. She seemed fine.
“Q. You said the baby was up from ten until eleven or approximately?
“A. Yes, around there.
“Q. It was eleven o’clock that you fed her?
“A. Yes.
“Q. After you fed the baby, what did you do?
“A. At eleven?
“Q. Uh-huh.
“A. I just watched TV.
“Q. What did you observe the baby do, if anything?
“A. She was fine, she fell back to sleep a while later after she ate until I got a phone call from my son.
“Q. As a result of that phone call, what did you do?
“A. Well, my son needed his costume by one-thirty because he had forgot it for his halloween party, and the baby was sleeping and I was about to call a cab. It was just a few minutes before one and the cab number was busy, and just as I was hanging up, Gill [appellant] pulled up so I told him what I had to do.

“Q. What, if anything, did you do then?

“A. I took the car and I told him that if I wasn’t back by three, because I had some grocery shopping to do, to feed the baby at three, she would eat at three.
“Q. So then is it your testimony that when you left-
“A. I left at one o’clock.
“Q. One o’clock?
“A. Yes.
“Q. And then, if you know, was the baby sleeping at that time?
“A. Yes, I believe she was.
“Q. Okay. Then you left at one, and then why don’t you please tell the jury what you did.
“A. I left at one o’clock, I took my son his halloween costume and I went to Safeway and did my shopping, and I was back by about quarter to three.
“Q. Okay. What, if anything, happened when you came back at quarter to three?
“A. I had put the groceries away and sat down and asked Phil [sic] if she was still sleeping and he said, yes, and that she hadn’t woke yet to eat, and he asked me about the bruise on her right ear.
“Q. What, if anything, did you say?
“A. I did not know where it came from. I was afraid to turn around and ask him the same question because there was one on her left ear two weeks prior to that.
“Q. Now, after he told you-how did he say that, that there was a bruise on the baby?
“A. I don’t recall the exact words. He asked me, ‘Did you notice the bruise on her right ear,’ and if I knew where it came from.
“Q. And after he said that to you, what did you do?
“A. I looked at it and I said, ‘No,’ and it was worse than the one before.
“Q. I guess I’m not being clear on my questions. What did you observe when you looked?
[805]*805“A. The bruise on the right ear and in back of it.
“Q. And then after you observed the bruise on the right ear, what, if anything, did you do at that time?
“A. I told him I didn’t know where it had come from, and that’s about as far as the conversation went about the bruise.”

Alysia was taken to the Memorial Hospital in Cheyenne where she was attended to by Dr. Russell Williams. He testified she was comatose and:

“A. She did have a very unusual bruise about the right fleshy part of her ear and a semi-lunar bruise just behind the ear on the right side as well. This bruise was red with some purple discoloration and appeared to me to be fresh.
“Q. Was there anything additional that your examination disclosed?
“A. No-well, yes, her anterior fontanelle, the the [sic] soft spot, was quite tense, indicating that the brain was under increased pressure.
“Q. After examination of the baby, what was your diagnosis at that time? “A. Well, it was my feeling that the baby was a victim of nonaecidental trauma and that she had sustained a severe brain injury.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
621 P.2d 802, 1980 Wyo. LEXIS 326, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grabill-v-state-wyo-1980.