Kinder v. Boles

253 F. Supp. 817, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7766
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. West Virginia
DecidedApril 21, 1966
DocketCiv. A. No. 1516-W
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 253 F. Supp. 817 (Kinder v. Boles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. West Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kinder v. Boles, 253 F. Supp. 817, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7766 (N.D.W. Va. 1966).

Opinion

MAXWELL, Chief Judge.

This is a habeas corpus proceeding, brought by Roy E. Kinder, an inmate of the West Virginia State Penitentiary. Kinder is serving a life sentence for two acts of first degree murder, imposed on January 19, 1960, by the Intermediate Court of Kanawha County, West Virginia. Several months earlier, a Kanawha County jury had found Kinder guilty of these charges and had recommended mercy.

Kinder is a man with a sixth grade education, who was unemployed at the time of the killings. His earlier employment had been as a maintenance man. During trial, he was described by medical witnesses as “mildly retarded” and as a' “schizoid personality with the added complications of intellectual deficiency.”

The transcript of the state trial also shows that the jury was presented with the following testimony. On the evening of March 1, 1959, Dave Ellis and Mrs. Elma Dodd, for whose subsequent murders that evening Kinder was found guilty, Kinder’s wife, Charma (who was Mrs. Dodd’s sister), along with two other men, paid several visits to a local tavern, then returned to Mrs. Dodd’s house trailer. There, a fight ensued between Kinder, who had appeared on the scene, and Ellis, whom Kinder had caught acting improperly with his. wife, Charma. Kinder was badly beaten around the face and forced to leave.

Approximately three hours later, Kinder reappeared with his shotgun, fired twice into Mrs. Dodd, who had tried to stop him at the trailer door, then, stepping into the trailer, shot Ellis. After having been told that his wife was no longer there, Kinder left, not noticing that she was hiding nearby.

State troopers were thereafter called to the scene, and the testimony of at least one of them indicated not only that [818]*818Kinder’s deserted auto was later found close to the trailer, but that three fired shells, found in and around the trailer, had been fired from Kinder’s shotgun.

Kinder, in the meantime, still bloodied and weak from his earlier scuffle with Ellis, made his way by foot over five or six miles of rough countryside to the home of a friend. From there, on March 2, 1959, the sheriff and state police were called. The officer who actually arrested Kinder and took him to the state police barracks for interrogation testified before the jury that Kinder’s face, at this time, was blood covered.

Kinder was detained at the state police barracks for approximately two and one-half hours, during which time a signed confession was obtained.1 Afterwards, [819]*819he was taken to a nearby hospital by the troopers and given medical attention.

In addition to other exhibits, and to the lengthy testimony, above summarized, the Petitioner’s confession was also presented to the jury at the state trial. During the trial proceedings, defense counsel never specifically questioned its voluntariness. But the record discloses that during a hearing held by the trial judge, out of the presence of the jury, the prime purpose of which was to determine whether a certain photograph of the defendant should be admitted' in evidence, the trial judge noted that he would also allow the introduction of the confession.

The trial proceedings related to the introduction of the confession, as recorded on pages 160-4 of the State Trial Transcript, read as follows:

MR. PETTRY (for the defense):
We would like to see the pictures at this time, your Honor.
MR. WALKER (prosecuting attorney):
We object.

Thereupon, out of the hearing of the jury, the following transpired:

THE COURT:

This raises the question again of the picture taken of the defendant at the time the statement was taken. They raised that question yesterday. What is the position of the State on that ?

MR. WALKER:

The position of the State is that, in effect, is a part of their case, and at the proper time when they ask for the picture, or its admission in evidence, the State will object, because it is too far removed from the time of the crime, the picture being taken at 10:30 or 11 o’clock at night.

Unless there was some intervening factor which made the - condition different than what it was at the time of the crime.

There is testimony in this case he walked four or five miles through very [820]*820rugged territory, Corporal Whitman’s testimony.

MR. PETTRY:

He was over a day doing it.

They have raised the question of insanity. Normally you can show pictures of the defendant taken at this time, as long as it’s shown he was like that at the time — in other words, that he hadn’t gotten any other injuries. Is he going to take the stand ?

Yes, sir.

What will be his testimony in respect to that, Hayes ?

That he had no previous injuries.

I don’t think that has anything to do with the case at this time, the Trooper testified he appeared to be normal; just a picture of a man with blood on his face shouldn’t affect the evidence.

MR. SPROUSE (for the defense):

At this time, if the Court rules one way, the jury will have the determination of whether or not this statement was made voluntarily, and his condition at the time is in issue; it will have to be decided before you can admit that in evidence. Certainly, if a man was beaten wp so badly he couldn’t think, would go to whether or not he could give a voluntary statement; and this photograph should be direct testimony on his condition. (Emphasis added.)

I believe I will let them put the picture in at this stage.

There is a doctor that treated him just a short time afterwards. The picture is just a bloody picture, you can have a small cut, and have blood all over your face.

Can you have the doctor here?

He is not available, he is not in the state. It was some intern they had up there, we have the hospital reports in, they are summonsed.

I believe if a statement was taken, if that is the picture taken that showed what he looked like at the time the statement was taken, they ought to be allowed to put that picture in, Charlie.

But I don’t think that picture is sufficient to affect the legal admissibility of the evidence.

I will let the picture go in, and the statement. (Emphasis added.)

# * *

Thereupon the trial of the case resumed before the jury * * *.

In other words, two facts are apparent: (1) defense counsel Sprouse indicated that the voluntariness of the confession had not been stipulated, if in fact such could properly be done, and that the jury, in some manner, and at least to a limited degree, was to consider the voluntariness of the confession; and (2) the trial judge permitted the confession to be introduced but, as the trial record later reflects, without jury instructions on this matter.

In 1964 Kinder unsuccessfully petitioned the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals for a writ of state habeas corpus, primarily alleging a deprivation of his Fourteenth Amendment rights, under Escobedo v. State of Illinois, 378 U.S. 478

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Related

State v. Vance
250 S.E.2d 146 (West Virginia Supreme Court, 1978)
Commonwealth v. McLean
247 A.2d 640 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1968)
Nathaniel Clifton v. United States
371 F.2d 354 (D.C. Circuit, 1967)

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Bluebook (online)
253 F. Supp. 817, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7766, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kinder-v-boles-wvnd-1966.