Pendergraft v. Cook

323 F. Supp. 967, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14488
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Mississippi
DecidedFebruary 23, 1971
DocketCiv. A. No. 4499
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 323 F. Supp. 967 (Pendergraft v. Cook) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pendergraft v. Cook, 323 F. Supp. 967, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14488 (S.D. Miss. 1971).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

RUSSELL, District Judge.

This cause is before the Court for the second time, having been remanded by the Fifth Circuit. Court of Appeals in Cause No. 29229, October 29, 1970, 433 F.2d 969, with directions for this Court to pass on the issue of whether petitioner’s state court trial was invalid by reason of the alleged admission of illegal evidence against her in violation of her constitutional rights.

By way of background, petitioner, Mrs. Catherine T. Pendergraft of Jackson, Mississippi, was convicted in the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi of the murder of her husband, Ralph N. Pendergraft. Her first conviction was reversed by the Mississippi Supreme Court and the cause remanded for a new trial as reflected in Pendergraft v. State, 191 So.2d 830, rendered November 7, 1966. That court primarily found reversible error in the trial court’s denial to petitioner of the right to consult with counsel during a two hour recess. The state appellate court also pointed out other errors, among them that a judicial determination, in the absence of the jury, should have been made as to whether probable cause existed for the arrest of Mrs. Pendergraft at the time a search was made of the residence. In its opinion the Court summarized that Jackson police officers, on the night of August 26, 1965, in the course of their investigation of an obviously violent death, without benefit of a search warrant, and, prior to petitioner’s formal arrest the next day following an autopsy, picked up several articles, which were subsequently exhibited in the trial against petitioner. The Court, in relating the facts upon which it found that the officers were lawfully upon the premises, said that the officers conversed briefly with the accused’s physician and then went to the family room where the nude body of the deceased lay on the floor covered by a bedspread. Their investigation revealed the body to be cold and stiff with seventeen visible wounds thereon. No blood or blood stains were beneath the body and the body itself appeared to have been cleaned with the exception of blood found under the fingernails and on the bottom of the feet. An investigation of the premises disclosed traces of blood on the floor of the kitchen and in the hallway. Blood was found on the doorway to the [969]*969bar adjoining the family room, and a blood stained bottle and glass were found in the bar. Further investigation led to the utility room where the officers noticed the clothes dryer to be warm, and upon opening it found articles of clothing, towels and other items therein. A sponge and pillowslip were found elsewhere in the home. The Court, in finding that the officers were lawfully upon the premises, held that they could testify to that which came under their observation, but that the greater question was whether they had the right in the course of their investigation to open the bar area and to open the dryer without a search warrant and without arrest. The Court further held that the question should have been resolved by a judicial determination of whether there was probable cause for the arrest of petitioner contemporaneous with such a search. The lack of this determination was thus one of the grounds for reversal.

Preceding the second trial and conviction, petitioner filed a motion to suppress certain evidence, contending that various articles were examined and taken by police officers from the Pendergraft residence on the night of August 26, 1965, prior to her arrest the following day, and other articles were seized and impounded on the following day under an illegal search warrant, which warrant had not been placed in evidence in the first trial, and that both searches and seizures were illegal. After a full, evidentiary hearing, the trial judge issued his written opinion on the motion finding that only certain of the articles introduced in the first trial were impounded by police officers on the night of August 26, 1965, and that the remaining articles were seized the next day following the arrest and issuance of a search warrant. As to those articles taken on the night of August 26, 1965, and addressing himself to the ruling of the Mississippi Supreme Court with respect to probable cause, the trial judge, after referring to the testimony of police officers and that of petitioner relating to the initial investigation on the night of August 26, 1965, found that the officers had probable cause to believe that a felony had been committed and reasonable grounds to believe that petitioner committed the felony. He accordingly overruled that part of the motion relating to the items seized on the night of August 26, 1965, and specified that the following items could be used as evidence by the state: (1) a band aid from underneath the deceased’s body; (2) a bottle of scotch and glass with blood stains; (3) two knives obtained in the kitchen; (4) a pillowslip with blood thereon; (5) a yellow sponge found on the floor; and (6) the bedspread covering the deceased’s body. As to the search warrant, although it specifically itemized all other articles which were seized under it, the trial judge found that the affidavit on which the search warrant was issued was defective and therefore the search warrant was void. The judge accordingly sustained the motion to suppress as to all evidence seized under the illegal warrant. That evidence, including the items found in the clothes dryer, was not offered at the second trial and is, of course, not an issue here.

As to the second conviction, affirmed by the Mississippi Supreme Court on July 8, 1968, its decision appearing in 213 So.2d 560, and which is under attack here, the Court again related the facts pertaining to the death of Pendergraft. The Court stated that on the afternoon of August 26, 1965, the deceased suffered seventeen stab wounds while alone with his wife, petitioner here, in their home in Jackson, Mississippi. About 7:30 p.m., petitioner telephoned her former brother-in-law, Grady Tucker, asking him and his wife to come to her home immediately as something had happened to Ralph. Mrs. Tucker called Dr. W. B. Tumlinson, petitioner’s physician, who arrived at the Pendergraft home shortly after the Tuckers. Dr. Tumlinson called the Hinds County Coroner, who in turn called the Jackson Police Department. Two detectives were dispatched to the home in re[970]*970sponse to this call. They found the nude body, as they had previously testified, covered by a pink bedspread, lying on the floor in the family room. Dr. Tumlinson, the coroner and the detectives examined the wounds which “ranged from six puncture type wounds behind the right ear, downward to a gaping wound in his right chest, one in his right abdomen, four recent cuts just above his right knee, and numerous other cuts in the palms of his hands, the webbing between the fingers and on the outside of the fingers. All of these appeared to be shallow cuts except the ones in his chest and abdomen. His body had been completely cleaned, and there was no evidence of blood except on the sole of his right foot, on the bottom of the left big toe and around the cuticles of his fingernails.” Continuing the Court said: “The detectives found a bloodstain on the doorknob of a louvered door opening from the family room to an enclosed bar. On the counter of the bar they found a partially filled bottle of scotch whiskey and a whiskey glass, both of which had bloodstains on them. The kitchen adjoins the family room, and on one counter of the kitchen the detectives found a butcher knife with bloodstains on the stainless steel blade, and on another counter near the sink they found a butcher knife that had been washed and was still wet.

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Related

State v. Wooten
237 S.E.2d 301 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1977)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
323 F. Supp. 967, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14488, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pendergraft-v-cook-mssd-1971.