People v. Dennis

177 Cal. App. 2d 655, 2 Cal. Rptr. 393, 1960 Cal. App. LEXIS 2528
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 4, 1960
DocketCrim. 1436
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 177 Cal. App. 2d 655 (People v. Dennis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Dennis, 177 Cal. App. 2d 655, 2 Cal. Rptr. 393, 1960 Cal. App. LEXIS 2528 (Cal. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

GRIFFIN, P. J.

Prior to his first trial in 1954, defendant entered the sole plea of not guilty by reason of insanity to an information charging him with two counts of assault with intent to commit murder (Pen. Code, § 217) and four counts of assault with a deadly weapon (Pen. Code, § 245). After trial before the court, sitting without a jury, he was found sane at the time of the alleged offenses and sentenced to state prison. An appeal from this conviction was taken to this court but the appeal was dismissed at the request of defendant’s attorney. In September, 1955, the Supreme Court denied a petition for habeas corpus filed by the defendant in propria persona. A subsequent petition for habeas corpus was filed with the Supreme Court by an attorney acting on defendant’s behalf. The Supreme Court determined that where uncontradicted evidence established that the defendant was insane at the time of trial, the conviction should be reversed. On March 21, 1959, the Supreme Court by its judgment ordered that the defendant be returned to the trial court, that the trial court determine defendant’s present san *657 ity and if he be found presently sane that there be a retrial of the issue of his sanity at the time of the commission of the offenses committed in April, 1954. (In re Dennis, 51 Cal.2d 666, 668 [335 P.2d 657].)

On June 9, 1959, the issue of defendant’s present sanity was tried by the court, sitting without a jury. A qualified psychiatrist testified that in his opinion the defendant was mentally able to appreciate the nature of the proceedings being held and to cooperate in his own defense. The defense conceded that the defendant was able to cooperate with his attorney and was fully cognizant of the nature of the proceedings. The court rendered judgment that the defendant was presently sane within the meaning of sections 1367 and 1368 of the Penal Code.

The issue of defendant’s sanity at the time of the commission of the offenses was tried by a jury, which returned a verdict finding him sane. Defendant appeals from the judgment of conviction. The only contention by defendant on the appeal is that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict of the jury.

The evidence disclosed that defendant was separated from his wife some time in the month of March, 1954, and that he had threatened to kill her. On the afternoon of April 28, 1954, Mrs. Dennis was at her home in San Diego, when she observed defendant at the kitchen door. At the time he was carrying a shotgun which was concealed in a cloth wrapping. She ran outside. He pursued her, fired a shot over her head, caught her and dragged her back into the house. The defendant told his wife that there was going to be a gun battle and that the pantry would be the safest place for her to hide. Shortly thereafter, he fired out a window and wounded a uniformed deputy marshal who was approaching the house from the front. As the marshal was being helped to a safe place by a police officer who resided nearby, the defendant shot at both men from a different position in the house. Other officers surrounded the Dennis home and the defendant fired at them from various positions within the house, wounding three more officers. As the officers returned his fire, he lay on the floor in the same position of safety that he had previously pointed out to his wife. His wife then asked defendant to surrender and he said he couldn’t because he had already shot a policeman. During the gun battle, defendant ordered his wife to go to the telephone and answer calls, and then defendant told his wife to call the police and tell them that he was ready *658 to give himself up. As she was doing this, a tear gas shell exploded within the house and defendant’s wife fled through the front door. He fired at her as she left the house, wounding her severely in the leg. Then he emerged from the kitchen door with his hands up. As he got to the bottom of the steps he dropped his hands and an officer ordered him to raise them again, which he did. While he was being handcuffed, searched and transported to the county hospital for treatment of a wound received during the gun battle, defendant was cooperative and not abusive or combative. Defendant told the officers with him that he was the only one in the house with a shotgun and said he had seen a man in a green uniform approaching the house and that there was a restraining order out against defendant and that he had shot the officers so they would not take him. The following day at the hospital the defendant told an officer guarding him that he had bought the gun about a week before and had taken it to the wife’s home to frighten her. He asked the officer for permission to read the newspaper and stated that he wanted to see if he had “hit the newspapers.” He further questioned the officer as to what the maximum and minimum penalties for his offense were and when arraigned on four counts stated that he thought he had shot only two persons, his wife and a police officer.

Considerable evidence was introduced at the trial concerning defendant’s mental condition. He had been discharged from the Military Service in 1944 with a mental illness diagnosed as schizophrenic reaction, paranoid type. In 1947 he was confined in the Patton State Hospital for a short period of time and later transferred to the Veterans Hospital in Los Angeles. Dr. McMillan examined defendant in 1950 and 1951 for purposes of veteran’s disability determination. He concurred in the earlier diagnosis of defendant’s illness and in December, 1951, described it as chronic, mild and improved. It was established that defendant had been steadily employed at Convair in San Diego for about three years preceding April, 1954. His wife, to whom he had been married for about five and a half years in 1954, testified that defendant acted just as he always did when he was angry except that he was a little desperate. His father-in-law had known defendant about 10 years in 1954, and testified that in his opinion defendant was normal. Dr. Larson, a psychiatrist employed as status psychiatrist at San Quentin Prison, testified that he examined the defendant in October of 1958 and that although the defendant had been chronically mentally ill for many *659 years, he believed that the defendant had been able to distinguish between right and wrong on the day of the shooting despite his mental condition.

The defense called several psychiatrists who testified as to defendant’s mental condition. Dr. Suit examined the defendant on the day following the shooting and formed the opinion that defendant was suffering from schizophrenia, paranoid type, and that in his opinion the defendant did not know right from wrong and that his condition was incurable. On cross-examination, Dr. Suit admitted that a person could have this mental disorder and still distinguish right from wrong and that such a person might have periods of remission when his mental illness would be less severe. Dr. Crowley, a psychiatrist of the staff of Patton State Hospital, examined the defendant two months after the shooting, in June, 1954. He diagnosed defendant’s mental state as schizophrenic condition, paranoid type, which he considered an incurable mental illness. It was Dr. Crowley’s opinion that defendant was partially unable to distinguish the nature and quality of his acts and unable to distinguish right from wrong at the time of the shooting. On cross-examination, Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
177 Cal. App. 2d 655, 2 Cal. Rptr. 393, 1960 Cal. App. LEXIS 2528, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-dennis-calctapp-1960.