State v. Stout

666 S.W.2d 480, 1984 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 2299
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJanuary 16, 1984
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 666 S.W.2d 480 (State v. Stout) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Stout, 666 S.W.2d 480, 1984 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 2299 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

DWYER, Judge.

The appellant, a juvenile tried as an adult, appeals as of right from his conviction for murder in the second degree with punishment set at confinement for twenty years.

There are six issues, the first of which contests the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict. With this in mind, we will narrate the evidence based on our review of the record.

The appellant lived with his Aunt Venia Stout in the Doe Valley area near Mountain City. Appellant’s uncle, Homer Stout, resided in a nearby house, while Billy Joe Stout, who was Homer’s brother and appellant’s father, lived in a cabin on Venia’s property. As one witness described it, the houses were so close to each other that family members “could stand in the yard and holler at one another.”

Joe Eller, a Doe Valley merchant, testified that on January 8, 1982, Homer sold him a B.B. gun, a camera, and certain other articles for twenty-five dollars. The witness had earlier seen Homer walking across a field accompanied by a man wearing a blue coat with a white stripe on the sleeve. Shortly after Homer left, appellant came into the witness’s store wearing the same blue jacket with white stripes and claimed that the articles were his and Homer had stolen them. The merchant told appellant that if this was true he should obtain a warrant for his uncle’s arrest, at which time appellant left the premises.

Homer, Billy, and the appellant spent much of the evening of January 8 drinking beer together. Appellant’s father and a neighbor both testified that appellant repeatedly complained to Homer that he wanted six dollars which Homer supposedly kept from him. Homer’s widow testified that around 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. on the night of the murder, appellant told her: “I come up here to tell that thing to never come back down there again.”

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Department received a call around 11:00 p.m. on January 8, 1982, from appellant, who reported that his uncle was seriously injured. A deputy testified that when he arrived, appellant was in an excited state and was without a shirt even though it was extremely cold. Appellant directed the police to the back of Venia Stout’s house, where Homer’s lifeless body was found. The decedent was lying on the ground with a wooden club across his chest, and miscellaneous items such as a flashlight, wallet, and tobacco can had been placed in a neat pile at his feet. A second wood club was discovered in the vicinity a few days later. Spots of blood were found on the back wall of the house several feet from the body, and appellant had blood on his neck, feet, and hands. Blood spots were also observed on the floor inside Venia’s home. The deputy testified that he found a pair of dark-framed glasses in the house and gave them to the appellant, who claimed that they were his; these glasses could not be found on a subsequent search. There was testimony that the victim wore dark-framed glasses and that appellant had never worn glasses.

Billy Joe emerged from his cabin after the police arrived and was promptly arrested for public drunkenness. The decedent had a blood alcohol content of .35 and Billy registered .33. The F.B.I. examiner who tested the blood specimens related that [482]*482these were among the highest levels he had ever seen.

A pathologist testified that the victim suffered multiple depressed fractures of the skull, the left side of the chest was fractured, and the left lung was lacerated. He related that the injuries resulted from multiple blows from a blunt object, with the fatal blow shifting the heart to the right, causing cardiac arrest.

The appellant, testifying in his own behalf, stated that he saw his father and the decedent crossing a field on the way to Eller’s store on January 8, 1982. Homer sold Mr. Eller some of appellant’s personal belongings and used the money to buy beer. Appellant acknowledged asking his uncle for six dollars, which was the amount he figured Homer had left after purchasing the beer. Later that evening, appellant’s father allegedly asked him where his “sticks” were. This was a reference to a pair of “numb chucks” (a weapon consisting of two wooden clubs tied together) which appellant had brought home from a shop class at school. Appellant identified the clubs found at the murder scene as his “numb chucks”. Billy allegedly threatened to use the clubs on Homer if he caught him stealing beer. Appellant testified that he went to Homer’s house and tried to warn him of his father’s threat. He denied telling Homer’s wife “to tell that thing to stay away.” Appellant stated that after he went to bed that night, he heard a noise, got up, and went to his father’s house, where he found his father sitting in a chair and breathing hard. He then went to check Venia’s back yard, where he found the body. He related that he picked Homer up by the shoulders and shook him, getting blood on himself in the process. Appellant denied any confrontation with the deputy regarding the eyeglasses. A nurse testified for the defense that she could not say that Billy was drunk when he was brought to the hospital on the night in question. Appellant’s mother testified that Homer and Billy did not get along when they were drinking. Summed up, the defense theory was that appellant’s father was the most likely person to have killed Homer.

The verdict of the jury, approved by the trial judge, accredits the testimony of the State’s witnesses and resolves all conflicts in favor of the theory of the State. State v. Hatchett, 560 S.W.2d 627 (Tenn.1978). On appeal, the State is entitled to the strongest legitimate view of the evidence and all reasonable or legitimate inferences which may be drawn therefrom. State v. Cabbage, 571 S.W.2d 832 (Tenn.1978).

While it is true that there were no eyewitnesses to the homicide, the record in this case contains ample circumstantial evidence from which a rational trier of fact could and did infer that appellant bludgeoned his uncle to death with his “numb chucks”. On the day of the slaying, appellant claimed ownership of items which Homer had sold to Joe Eller. Appellant was seen arguing with his uncle that afternoon over six dollars that Homer allegedly owed him. He told the decedent’s widow to “tell that thing to never come back down there again.” When the police arrived at the murder scene, appellant was in an excited state, with spots of blood on his neck, feet, and hands. He admitted ownership of the club which was found lying across the decedent’s chest. There was testimony that appellant claimed as his a pair of eyeglasses found in Venia’s house shortly after the murder and that while appellant did not wear glasses, the victim did. Appellant attempted to place the blame for the homicide on his father, but with proof that his father was extremely intoxicated on the night in question and was thus unlikely to be capable of administering the type of severe beating involved here, the evidence amply supports the jury’s rejection of appellant’s theory. The evidence meets the requirements of T.R.A.P. 13(e), and the issue is overruled.

In his second issue, appellant, who was sixteen at the time of the slaying, urges that he was erroneously tried as an adult. Much of the evidence presented at the juvenile hearing was the same as the evidence outlined here. The juvenile court [483]*483noted several of the factors set out in T.C.A.

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Related

State v. Aucoin
756 S.W.2d 705 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 1988)
State v. Bowers
744 S.W.2d 588 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 1987)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
666 S.W.2d 480, 1984 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 2299, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-stout-tenncrimapp-1984.