State v. Slaten

252 S.W.2d 330
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedOctober 13, 1952
Docket43068
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 252 S.W.2d 330 (State v. Slaten) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Slaten, 252 S.W.2d 330 (Mo. 1952).

Opinion

252 S.W.2d 330 (1952)

STATE
v.
SLATEN.

No. 43068.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

October 13, 1952.
Motion for Rehearing or to Transfer to Denied November 10, 1952.

I. Joel Wilson, St. Louis, for appellant.

J. E. Taylor, Atty. Gen., Lawrence L. Bradley, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

Motion for Rehearing or to Transfer to Court en Banc Denied November 10, 1952.

BARRETT, Commissioner.

Fred Douglas Slaten has been found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life imprisonment. Except for certain specific events, Slaten testified that he had no memory or recollection of where he went, what he did or where he was taken, and particularly no memory of shooting anyone, after he left the Panama Club sometime after eleven o'clock and started west on Cass Avenue. A jury has found, however, that he shot and killed Mote Lee Land on March 22, 1950 and that in so doing he was guilty of murder in the first degree.

Briefly the facts and circumstances, as they could reasonably be found from the state's evidence, were these: Slaten, thirty-one years of age, had been a member of the St. Louis police force since June 1949. As a police officer he had been issued a badge and a Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver, bearing serial number C-7103. On March 22, 1950 his shift of police duty ended about 3:30 in the afternoon and he went home and changed clothes. He had received a refund check from his insurance as a war veteran in the sum of $222.75 and about 6:30 went to the Harlem Tap Room and asked Mitzi Teeton to cash the check, *331 Mitzi could not cash the check so he went next door to a barbershop and he and John Brown went to Louie's Pawn Shop and cashed the check. On the way back to the barbershop they stopped at "Old Roebuck's Liquor Store" and bought a pint of whisky. Slaten says that he did not drink any of this whisky but left it in the barbershop for Brown and Turk. He returned to the Harlem Tap Room, Mitzi says it was then about eight o'clock, and bought a half pint of whisky for the house, and later bought another half pint for himself and a girl companion he had acquired in the tap room. He says that he had but two drinks when he and the girl left the tap room and went to the Panama Club. There he bought another half pint from which he took but one drink and left $195 of his money with the bartender. The girl he was with claims that be became abusive and belligerent and while he was away from their booth the first time she asked another woman, Mary Thomas, to sit with her. While he was away from the booth a second time the girl, Halley Watkins, left. About eleven o'clock he left the Panama Club and says that he was going to call on a friend at 3100 Cass Avenue. As he walked along the street he says that he became ill and dizzy and was nauseated. From that time forward, except for one encounter, he does not remember anything. He did not remember shooting anyone, he did not remember being arrested, or being taken to the hospital and finally, being taken to the police station. He said that he had had but three drinks. The inference he would have drawn from the circumstances is that the two women learned that he had $195 on his person and gave him a "mickey finn" in his third and last drink.

In any event, according to the state's evidence, as Slaten weaved down Cass Avenue with his police badge in one hand and his pistol in the other he belligerently accosted people on the street, shot into a doorway and fired a shot into a passing automobile. Mote's half sister, Martha Smith, and her boy friend, Eddie Brew, were parked at the curb in front of 2950 Cass Avenue, where Mote and his half sisters and mother lived. They saw Slaten with his topcoat over his shoulders staggering down the street, and as he approached the parked car and 2950 Cass Avenue Mote Land came across the street. Slaten was in the entrance to the gangway and as Mote approached, Slaten, without provocation or forewarning, pushed him around, or "bumped into" him, and as he turned Mary Thomas and Eddie Brew saw Slaten point a gun and saw the fire and heard the shot as Mote fell to the ground. The bullet went through Mote's abdomen and liver and lodged in the tenth dorsal vertebra. The police were called immediately and in front of 3010 Cass Avenue Slaten's topcoat was found and at 3042 Cass Avenue a policeman came upon Slaten who threw his pistol on the ground and fell upon it. There were five empty shells in the revolver and one live shell. The pistol was number C-7103 and ballistic tests indicated that the bullet found in Mote's back was fired from that gun.

By its instructions the court hypothesized for the jury Slaten's guilt of murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree and manslaughter. The court also hypothesized his innocence upon a finding that he shot Mote in self-defense. Upon his appeal counsel urge that the court erred and that he did not have a fair trial for the reason that the court failed to also instruct the jury upon the subject of "accidental homicide" as a part of the law of the case, Section 546.070(4) RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S., even though requested to do so as indicated by instructions offered on his behalf. And, it has become settled, if there is any evidence upon the whole record, however improbable, in support of the theory of an "accidental" shooting and killing within the meaning of the statute on excusable homicide, Section 559.050 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S., that the court is bound to properly and fully instruct the jury upon the subject. State v. O'Kelley, Mo.Sup., 213 S.W.2d 963; State v. Crowley, 345 Mo. 1177, 139 S.W.2d 473; State v. Stone, 354 Mo. 41, 188 S.W.2d 20. The meritorious question upon this appeal is whether there is any evidence, from any source, from which the jury could draw the inference of an accidental killing within *332 the meaning of the statute. State v. Allen, Mo.Sup., 235 S.W.2d 294; 41 C.J.S., Homicide, § 387, page 194.

In contending that there is evidence from which an inference of accident could be drawn counsel for Slaten say that "as these men reached this gangway the deceased, without uttering a word of warning to defendant of his intention to enter this gangway, moved from the outer side of the walk directly in front of defendant while but a step in advance of him as he came along the south side a little over the middle of the walk on the building line side causing a collision, bumping and jamming together." Later, counsel says, by way of argument, "It is obvious that it was Mote Land's negligence or wanton act of crossing the walk from the north to the south side in front of defendant in an effort to get in to the gangway which caused the collision, bumping and jamming resulting in the accidental and unintentional firing off of a pistol, causing the death of deceased." This line of argument refers to the testimony of the state's eyewitnesses, Martha Smith and Eddie Brew. They did not say, however, that Mote bumped or jammed into Slaten either accidently or purposely and that the gun in Slaten's hand went off as they collided.

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Bluebook (online)
252 S.W.2d 330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-slaten-mo-1952.