State v. Venable

606 S.W.2d 298, 1980 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 299
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJune 10, 1980
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 606 S.W.2d 298 (State v. Venable) 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. Venable, 606 S.W.2d 298, 1980 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 299 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

OPINION

DAUGHTREY, Judge.

The appellant-defendant, Castel Venable, was convicted of second degree murder and [300]*300sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. On appeal he challenges (1) the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury’s verdict, (2) the admissibility of an extrajudicial statement made by the deceased and (3) of a threat made by the defendant to an arresting officer, (4) the trial court’s failure to order disclosure of certain police reports, and (5) the wording of the judgment entered against Venable, requiring him to serve this 20 year sentence at the “expiration” of a sentence on which he had been paroled at the time of this offense. We find no error in the record which would require reversal; however, the judgment will be modified as outlined below.

The evidence at trial showed that in the past the defendant had been occasionally employed by Archie Duke, owner of Duke’s Texaco Station at 8th Avenue North and Monroe Street in North Nashville. On the evening of April 14, 1978, Duke died from a single shot of a 7.7 mm. Japanese rifle, which was admittedly fired by the defendant, Venable. Venable claimed that he shot in self-defense, pointing to the fact that Duke was carrying a shotgun at the time of his death.

The killing resulted from a build-up of animosity between Venable and Duke during the day of the shooting. At approximately 9:00 to 9:30 A.M. that morning, witnesses in the service station observed Duke order Venable off the property, telling him, “This is a business phone, and besides that you’re drunk.”

Later, in the afternoon, two witnesses saw Venable in an alley adjacent to the service station. He was armed with a long-barrelled gun. One of these witnesses quoted Venable as saying he was “out to get somebody.” The other said Venable told him “to go inside and tell that big fat son of a bitch to come outside. I’m going to kill him.” (There is little question that this reference was to Duke, who at 6'2" weighed some 300 pounds.) This witness drove to a nearby cafe where Archie Duke was seated with a friend, drinking a beer. Calling Duke aside, he warned him that Castel Venable was at the Texaco station with a gun, threatening to kill Duke. Duke then placed a call to his wife, who drove to the cafe a few minutes later and delivered to Duke an unloaded .12 gauge shotgun.

Taking the shotgun with him, Duke left the cafe a little after 6:00 P.M. with his companion and drove back to the Texaco station, where he confronted Venable at the edge of the service station property. Vena-ble was unarmed at this time. Telling Venable once again to stay off the premises, Duke hit the defendant with a blow hard enough to knock him to the ground. He then picked Venable up and threw him bodily into 8th Avenue, where the defendant lay for a few moments before getting up. Protesting that he was a “heart patient” and was unable to fight back, Venable wandered across the street and away from the station.

Duke then went into the station, accompanied by his friend, where he found two station employees. They testified that five or ten minutes later Duke wrapped his shotgun in a jacket or shirt and left the station headed for his truck, saying that he was leaving. Within a few minutes a single shot rang out. One of the men inside the service station looked out just after he heard the shot and saw Venable in a “sniper’s position” with the gun pointed in his direction. He ducked back inside the station. Shortly thereafter Venable appeared at the front of the station carrying a long-barrelled gun. Witnesses across the street watched as he then walked away from the scene.

After Venable had left the premises, those inside the station ran outside looking for Duke. They found him lying face forward on top of his unloaded shotgun. The lower part of his face had been blown away by a shot that had entered the left rear of his head, just behind the jawbone. A 7.7 mm. shell casing was found 65 to 70 feet from the body.

Investigating officers learned quickly of Venable’s identity and went to the nearby house where he was living at the time. They found him eating supper, unable to explain the blood-covered shirt he was [301]*301wearing. He was taken back to the Texaco station where he told a detective that he shot Duke because “he whipped me today.” Venable also said that he shot in self-defense, pointing out that Duke had been armed. When Venable got to headquarters he told one of the arresting officers, “Once I get out of this, you’re next.”

The defendant did not testify. He now insists that the evidence is insufficient to establish the malice and lack of adequate provocation necessary to establish second degree murder.

The question of malice is one for the jury’s determination, Cagle v. State, 507 S.W.2d 121, 129 (Tenn.Cr.App.1973), as is the issue of self-defense, Arterburn v. State, 216 Tenn. 240, 391 S.W.2d 648, 653 (1965). We conclude that the evidence summarized above, taken in a light most favorable to the State, was sufficient to permit a rational trier of fact to find the defendant guilty of second degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt. See Rule 13(e), Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure; State v. Patton, 593 S.W.2d 913, 916-17 (Tenn.1979), citing Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 324, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2792, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Under the proof the jury would have been justified in finding that the defendant, determined to settle his score with Duke, armed himself and laid in wait for his intended victim, shooting him at a distance in the darkness of the alley.

Nor do we find reversible error in the introduction of Duke’s statement to Venable regarding the defendant’s use of the service station telephone and the state of his sobriety. The prosecution attempted to justify the statement on the ground that it was not hearsay because it was uttered in the defendant’s presence. This thoroughly bogus test of what constitutes hearsay, see Laird v. State, 565 S.W.2d 38, 41 (Tenn.Cr.App.1978) and Bennett v. State, 530 S.W.2d 788, 792-93 (Tenn.Cr.App.1975), was apparently accepted by the trial judge. Nevertheless, despite the fact that the reason for the introduction of the statement was erroneous, the result was not. Clearly the statement was probative not as proof of the matter asserted therein, but because of its effect on the hearer, in this case the defendant, supplying evidence of his motive in returning to the service station later in the day, armed and threatening to kill the de-clarant, Archie Duke. Thus, the statement was not hearsay, as the trial judge ruled, and there was no error in its admission. Bennett v. State, supra, at 793.

Moreover, even if the statement were construed to be hearsay, the prejudicial effect of its introduction was clearly mitigated by other evidence. The defendant contends that the statement supplied evidence of ill-will between the defendant and the victim, and proof that Venable had been drinking at an early morning hour, a fact which would tend to inflame the jury.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
606 S.W.2d 298, 1980 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 299, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-venable-tenncrimapp-1980.