McCullers v. State

143 So. 2d 909
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJuly 3, 1962
DocketD-123
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 143 So. 2d 909 (McCullers v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCullers v. State, 143 So. 2d 909 (Fla. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

143 So.2d 909 (1962)

Lois Mary McCULLERS, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. D-123.

District Court of Appeal of Florida. First District.

July 3, 1962.
Rehearing Denied September 20, 1962.

*910 T.J. Jennings, Jr., and James T. Norton, Greencone Springs, for appellant.

Richard W. Ervin, Atty. Gen., and George R. Georgieff, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

STURGIS, Judge.

Lois Mary McCullers, defendant below, appeals from a judgment of conviction of manslaughter in the death of her husband.

We paraphrase in inverse order the points of law involved: (1) Whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain the verdict. (2) Whether the trial judge committed prejudicial error by offering to have the personal needs of the sequestered jurors attended to by the sheriff and his deputies. (3) Whether it was error to overrule defendant's challenge of juror Frank C. Jones for cause. (4) Whether it was error to admit defendant's alleged confession in evidence, where it is made to appear the same was voluntarily given in her home in the presence of the coroner, who was also the committing magistrate, but not as an incident to any official proceeding, and said official did not advise defendant of her constitutional rights. (5) Whether it was error to permit an expert witness, Dr. William Ingram, Jr., to state an opinion as to appellant's sanity at the time of the commission of the alleged crime, where it is made to appear that the same was based in substantial part upon extrajudicial and undisclosed statements made to the witness by third persons concerning defendant's actions shortly prior to and immediately following the homicide.

Point 1

The jury rendered a verdict finding defendant guilty of manslaughter and a careful review of the record discloses that there was ample evidence, aside from the challenged evidence of Dr. William Ingram, Jr., hereinafter discussed, to support that verdict. It is elemental that an appellate court will not substitute its judgment for that of the jury on questions of fact.

Point 2

The jury selected to try this case was sequestered. After the jury was selected the trial judge announced that the sheriff would make arrangements for clothing that they might need and for delivery of any messages they might wish to give to their families or others. A juror inquired what was to be done with his automobile and the judge directed the question to a deputy sheriff, who was a witness for the state, and the deputy said: "We can either park them here or get them home to your family or pick up your family and have them pick them up. Either way you would like to have it done we can arrange it." The judge also informed the jury that the state would pay for their subsistence and room. He inquired of the deputy sheriff if he knew of any reason why any juror should need any money, and the deputy *911 replied that he did not. When alternate jurors were selected on the following day, the judge informed them that arrangements for the needs of other jurors had been made through the sheriff's office, that they were entitled to the same consideration, and that the sheriff would be glad to take care of their requests. The defendant made no objection to the foregoing transactions and on this appeal asserts for the first time that this conduct of the trial judge tended to place the sheriff and his office in a highly complimentary position and to prejudice the defendant to the extent that she could not possibly receive a fair trial. Considering defendant's failure to object and the innocuous nature of these transactions, appellant's argument here is picayune and without merit.

Point 3

The defendant's challenge of juror Frank C. Jones for cause was properly rejected. A careful review of the questions addressed to him on the voir dire and his responses thereto, which we find no need to set out verbatim, reflect that he was fully qualified to serve. He meets the test recently restated in the case of Singer v. State (Fla.), 109 So.2d 7, 24:

"* * * the true test to be applied should be not whether the juror will yield his opinion, bias or prejudice to the evidence, but should be that whether he is free of such opinion, prejudice or bias or, whether he is infected by opinion, bias or prejudice, he will, nevertheless, be able to put such completely out of his mind and base his verdict only upon evidence given at the trial. Lamb v. State, [90 Fla. 844] 107 So. 530, supra, at page 535, citing Hopt v. People, 120 U.S. 430, 7 S.Ct. 614, 30 L.Ed. 708."

Point 4

The record on appeal clearly reflects that a confession made by appellant at her home following the shooting was voluntary in character and not given as an incident to any legal proceeding. It was therefore admissible despite any failure of the coroner, who was also the committing magistrate and present at the time, to warn her of her constitutional rights. See Leach & Smith v. State (Fla.), 132 So.2d 329. See also Dawson v. State (Fla.), 139 So.2d 408, in which Mr. Justice Thornal, in a specially concurring opinion exhaustively summarizes the subject of the admissibility of extrajudicial confessions in state court prosecutions in those instances where the confessor is not first taken before a magistrate and advised of his constitutional rights as delineated by Section 902.01, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., and as prescribed by Section 901.23, Florida Statutes, F.S.A. Justice Thornal's opinion places the subject in juxtaposition with the decision of the United States Supreme Court in McNabb v. United States, 318 U.S. 332, 63 S.Ct. 608, 87 L.Ed. 819, and in accord with Rule 5, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, 18 U.S.C.A., as defined in Mallory v. United States, 354 U.S. 449, 77 S.Ct. 1356, 1 L.Ed.2d 1479. The subject confession was duly admitted in evidence.

Point 5

We come now to the critical question of the propriety of admitting in evidence the opinion of Dr. William Ingram, Jr., a witness for the state, as to whether the defendant was legally sane at the time of the commission of the alleged crime, where it appears that the opinion was based in substantial part on conversations between the doctor and persons purporting to know the facts concerning the conduct of the defendant prior to and immediately following the homicide, the nature of which conversations is not disclosed by the testimony of Dr. Ingram or of any other witness appearing in the case.

To the indictment charging the defendant-appellant with the crime of murder in the first degree, she entered a general plea of not guilty and also a plea of not guilty *912 by reason of insanity. In support of the latter plea she produced several witnesses who testified that she was not sane at the time of the commission of the alleged crime. In rebuttal the state produced as a witness one William Ingram, Jr., M.D., who qualified as a neuropsychiatrist. On direct examination and as a predicate to eliciting from Dr. Ingram his professional opinion as to the sanity or insanity of the defendant on the night she shot and killed her husband, he testified that he conducted an examination of the defendant on only one occasion, saying:

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143 So. 2d 909, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccullers-v-state-fladistctapp-1962.