State v. Madden

449 P.2d 39, 104 Ariz. 111, 1969 Ariz. LEXIS 215
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 3, 1969
Docket1745
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 449 P.2d 39 (State v. Madden) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Madden, 449 P.2d 39, 104 Ariz. 111, 1969 Ariz. LEXIS 215 (Ark. 1969).

Opinions

HATHAWAY, Judge,

Court of Appeals:

Rebecca B. Madden was charged under A.R.S. § 13-451 with the murder of her husband. The cause was tried to a jury, and she was found guilty of murder in the second degree. On August 15, 1966, she was sentenced to ten to twelve years imprisonment.

Before setting forth the specific questions presented on this appeal, relating principally to selection of the jury, correctness of instructions, and participation in the proceedings by a judge other than the trial judge, we will briefly review the facts.

In the spring of 1965, the defendant and her husband began having marital difficulties which subsequently resulted in separation and divorce. On March 25, 1966, shortly after the hotly contested divorce trial, Mr. Madden was exercising his visitation rights with their nine-year-old son, Michael. In the late afternoon, prior to his departure for the defendant’s residence to take Michael back, he and the defendant had two or three quarrelsome telephone conversations.

The defendant’s residence was situated in a somewhat remote area near the Superstition Mountains. Before Madden’s arrival with Michael, the defendant placed her shotgun in the back seat of her car, and drove through and locked the gate to the grounds of the main ranch house. She then drove to the trailer home of Gus Seber, the caretaker, situated a few hundred yards away, and awaited Madden’s arrival. When Madden drove up to the gate, Michael attempted to open it and found it locked. Madden turned the car around and drove to Seber’s trailer, pulling up behind the defendant’s car. Seber had spotted Madden’s vehicle as it arrived at the gate to the main house and had notified the defend[113]*113ant. They both went outside the trailer, but Seber returned inside at the defendant’s direction.

As Michael got out of his father’s car, he saw his mother standing by her car with the shotgun in her hand. She told him to go into Seber’s trailer. He went inside and joined Seber in watching television. Several dogs were running back and forth barking in the trailer. The noise caused by the dogs and the television prevented Seber and Michael from hearing anything from outside. Moments later, the defendant came into the trailer and told Seber to call the police. He could not find the number and the defendant took the telephone from him. She called the Pinal County Sheriff’s office, and told the dispatcher:

“This is Mrs. Madden. My husband was trespassing on my property and I just shot him. Will you please send an officer to Meanwhile Ranch.”

A sheriff’s deputy who knew the defendant arrived approximately fifteen minutes later. When he asked her how she was, she responded, “I am sorry I did this.” The deputy saw Madden lying on the couch with a wound in his chest, and called an ambulance. Madden’s only utterances were pleas for help, requests for water, and statements that he was dying. He gave no details of the shooting. He was alive when placed in the ambulance, but expired enroute to the hospital.

The defendant testified that the shooting was accidental; that her husband grabbed the gun, causing it to discharge; that she had no intention of shooting or killing him.

The defendant initially contends that the systematic exclusion from the jury for cause of all persons who objected to the death penalty deprived her of an impartial jury, and left a group composed of “authoritarian, prosecution-prone” people. In Witherspoon v. People of Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968), the same argument was made. Because of the death penalty fixed by the jury in Witherspoon, reversal was decreed in view of the exclusion for cause of veniremen who objected to the death penalty or expressed conscientious or religious scruples against its infliction.

Witherspoon, being a capital punishment case, is inapplicable here, however, as a basis for reversal. Bumper v. State of North Carolina, 391 U. S. 543, 88 S.Ct. 1788, 20 L.Ed.2d 797 (1968). Witherspoon does, however, meet the defendant’s argument that a jury so selected must necessarily be biased in favor of conviction.1 The court, in Witherspoon, found that the date submitted by the petitioner was too fragmentary, and would not conclude on the basis of the record or from judicial notice that an unrepresentative jury resulted on the issue of guilty, or that there was a substantial increase in the risk of conviction. We have reviewed additional material submitted by the defendant and conclude likewise.2

[114]*114The defendant next contends that the trial court erred in submitting the first-degree murder charge to the jury, claiming that premeditation had not been established. We have carefully considered the record, in the light most favorable to sustaining the conviction and find that bitter relations had existed between the defendant and the decedent, and that the defendant had stated that she would rather see Madden dead than for him to keep the boy, and “if I don’t get the boy back, I will kill him.” It was shown that she was beneficiary under insurance policies on Madden’s life providing benefits in the sum of $450,000 in case of accidental death. The defendant expected Madden to come to the premises for the purpose of delivering Michael. The locked gate to the main ranch assured his entrance to the area occupied by the trailer. The defendant, with the shotgun in the back seat of her car, drove to the trailer to await Madden’s arrival with Michael. At her direction, Seber and Michael entered the trailer, leaving her alone with Madden. She removed the shotgun from her car as he arrived and injected a live cartridge into it. Madden died from the shotgun blast which followed. The foregoing amply supports a charge of first-degree murder.

The defendant also complains on appeal that the trial court should not have given the “lying in wait” instruction. The instructions are not set out in the brief as required by Rule 5(b) (10), Rules of the Supreme Court, 17 A.R.S. This rule is equally applicable to criminal appeals, Rule 15, Rules of the Supreme Court. An appellate court is under no obligation to consider the challenged instruction where its rules have not been followed. Johnson v. United States, 370 F.2d 495 (9th Cir. 1966). In any event the defendant, having been convicted of second-degree murder, was not prejudiced by the “lying in wait” instruction, which we recently considered in detail in State v. Brooks, 103 Ariz. 472, 445 P.2d 831 (1968); Walker v. People, 126 Colo. 135, 248 P.2d 287 (1952) ; State v. Goettina, 61 Wyo. 420, 158 P.2d 865 (1945) ; 41 C.J.S. Homicide § 427, para, d; Viliborghi v. State, 45 Ariz. 275, 43 P.2d 210 (1935); Wootton v. State, 232 Ark. 300, 337 S.W.2d 651 (1960) ; State v. Aubuchon, 394 S.W.2d 327 (Mo.1965) ; Ruffin v. State, 11 Terry 83, 50 Del. 83, 123 A.2d 461 (1956).

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Bluebook (online)
449 P.2d 39, 104 Ariz. 111, 1969 Ariz. LEXIS 215, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-madden-ariz-1969.