Grist v. State

1973 OK CR 253, 510 P.2d 964, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 497
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 21, 1973
DocketA-17804
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1973 OK CR 253 (Grist v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Grist v. State, 1973 OK CR 253, 510 P.2d 964, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 497 (Okla. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinions

OPINION

BUSSEY, Judge:

Appellant, Emma Pearl Grist, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged, tried and convicted in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Case No. CRF-71-1908, for the offense of Murder. Her punishment was fixed at life imprisonment, and from said judgment and sentence, a timely appeal has been perfected to this Court.

At the trial, Captain Chester Longacre of the Bethany Police Department testified that at approximately 10:45 p. m. on August 6, 1971 he received a call concerning a shooting at S007 North Mueller. He proceeded directly to the address and, upon arriving, observed a little girl standing on the front porch. She was yelling, ‘Sissy has been shot, Sissy has been shot.’ ” (Tr. 20) He entered the house and observed another little girl lying on the bed with the defendant lying on top of her. Upon noticing the blood on the little girl’s head, he asked the defendant, “What happened?”. The defendant said either “me” or “he”. The officer sand, “He who?” whereupon the defendant stated, “Not he, me. I shot her.” The defendant asked him how bad he thought the little girl was hurt and he responded that he “didn’t think she would make it.” (Tr. 32) He observed a revolv[966]*966er lying on the floor just inside the door of the bedroom.

Captain B. J. Schmidt of the Bethany Police Department testified that he arrived at the scene at approximately 11:05 p. m. He observed a considerable amount of blood on the bed, a brown leather holster lying on the floor and a .22-caliber pistol also lying on the floor. He recovered four projectiles which, together with the pistol, were submitted to the State Bureau of Investigation for ballistics tests. He subsequently obtained a bullet taken from the head of the deceased after the autopsy which was submitted for analysis with the other physical evidence.

Ray Lambert, firearms examiner for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, testified that in his opinion State’s Exhibit No. 10, the bullet removed from the victim’s head, had been fired from State’s Exhibit No. 9, the revolver Officer Schmidt recovered from the floor of the bedroom.

Susan Jayne Ramsey testified that she was employed as a telephone operator on duty on the evening in question. At approximately 10:40 p. m., she received a call from a woman who requested her to call the police and send them to 5007 North Mueller. The voice of the woman making the call seemed calm.

The defendant’s husband, .Wayne Grist, testified that on the evening in question he was working as an electronics technician at Baptist Hospital. He went home to eat at 7:00 and returned to the hospital at approximately 8:00. After returning to work, he talked to his wife by telephone approximately three or four times. He was unable to recall the text of the conversations other than the final two. He testified that his wife said something “about T hear something,’ or ‘Listen to this’, or something; and there was a large noise.” (Tr. Ill) He immediately called back home and his wife was screaming, “Help me. Help me.” (Tr. 113) Grist was declared to be a hostile witness. He admitted it was possible that he made a statement to Captain Schmidt to the effect: “I stated to her, ‘Alright, Goddamned it, if you don’t like it, pack your clothes and get out,’ and she said, ‘Alright, I can’t stand it any longer,’ arid then there was a pause, and then [he] stated that she stated to [him], ‘Alright, listen to this,’ and then [he] said [he] heard what [he] thought were two shots.” (Tr. 112-113)

On cross-examination, he testified that his wife started acting out of character or abnormal since the death of her father three or four years ago. She thought that her father had been murdered by arsenic poison administered by her mother. She started talking about her brother stealing cattle and that her sister became a prostitute. She remained in the psychiatric ward of Baptist Hospital for approximately sixty-six days after the incident.

On re-direct examination, he testified that on a prior occasion she threatened to kill him and the children with a gun.

Dr. Charles Marshall, pathology consultant with the State Medical Examiner’s office, testified that he performed an autopsy on Denise Grist on August 8, 1971. In his opinion, the cause of death was a single gunshot wound from a small caliber weapon which entered the right temple. He removed the bullet from the skull of the child and gave it to Captain Schmidt.

Beulah Stevens, Mary Jean Walraven, Helen Hawks and Linda Edlin testified that they were friends or neighbors of the defendant. They described the defendant as a very loving, devoted mother to the children. They each testified that the defendant’s demeanor and character changed following the death of her father.

Ruby Barnes, the defendant’s mother, testified that her father died in December of 1968. She testified that she did not kill her husband, that her son had not stolen cattle and that her daughters were not prostitutes.

Dr. Leonard Diehl testified that he was the defendant’s personal family doctor. He considered the defendant an excellent parent and that she took better than average care of her children.

[967]*967Dr. Sam Collins testified that he was a staff psychiatrist at Baptist Hospital. He first observed the defendant the morning of August 7 in the psychiatric ward at Baptist Hospital. The defendant had a gunshot wound in the head. He continued to observe and treat her during her stay at the hospital. He testified that in his opinion the defendant was schizophrenic and completely withdrawn from reality. The defendant had no recollection of the events prior to her coming into the hospital and he felt that at the moment of the incident, defendant was insane and did not know right from wrong. In his opinion, the defendant still needed help and treatment. He testified that defendant’s schizophrenia could have suddenly manifested itself on the day of the killing as a result of the strain of her father’s death and other family problems.

On recross-examination, he testified that he could not give a logical explanation for her statement that, “I shot her” when she did not know that she had shot her daughter.

Dr. Nolan Armstrong, a psychiatrist, testified he examined the defendant and in his opinion she was under the influence of a major emotional disturbance and a schizophrenic process. In his opinion, she was psychotic at the time of the shoóting and was completely unaware of what she was doing.

In rebuttal, Frank Brady, an agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, testified that he investigated the death of defendant’s father in December of 1968. He took statements from four of the children of the deceased including the defendant. Each of the statements were consistent with each other to the effect that they each thought that their mother had poisoned their father.

Gayle McCook testified that she was an inmate of the County Jail being held on a forgery charge. She was a cellmate with the defendant and had been since March 15, 1971. She heard the defendant state, “if she got out of this, next time she would do it for good” but “I don’t have it figured out yet.” (Tr. 236-237)

Dr. Loraine Schmidt, a psychiatrist with Central State Hospital in Norman, testified that the defendant was admitted to the state hospital for observation on October 12, 1971 and discharged on December 9, 1971.

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Related

Munn v. State
658 P.2d 482 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1983)
Ripley v. State
590 P.2d 48 (Alaska Supreme Court, 1979)
West v. State
1978 OK CR 81 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1978)
Opinion No. 77-180 (1977) Ag
Oklahoma Attorney General Reports, 1977
Russell v. State
1974 OK CR 194 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1974)
Grist v. State
1973 OK CR 253 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1973)

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Bluebook (online)
1973 OK CR 253, 510 P.2d 964, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 497, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grist-v-state-oklacrimapp-1973.