State v. Young

178 P.2d 592, 51 N.M. 77
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 19, 1947
DocketNo. 4999.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 178 P.2d 592 (State v. Young) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico 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. Young, 178 P.2d 592, 51 N.M. 77 (N.M. 1947).

Opinion

BRICE, Chief Justice.

The defendant was convicted of having murdered Mrs. Eloise Kennedy. Following his conviction he was sentenced by the trial court to be electrocuted. From this judgment he has appealed to this court.

On the 19th day of November, 1945, in the City and County of Santa Fe, in this state, the deceased, a young married woman, was brutally murdered in her apartment, one of several in an apartment building. About 2:30 o’clock P.M. on that day, her husband, Leon G. Kennedy, Jr., communicated with her by telephone. Thereafter, at 3:00 o’clock he again telephoned to the apartment but received no answer. From these circumstances it is presumed she was murdered at sometime between the hours named. At 5:30 o’clock on the same afternoon, her husband found her dead body lying face down on the bathroom floor in their apartment. He called a physician who arrived within from five to ten minutes. The doctor testified that at the time he arrived she had been dead from three to three and a half hours. A mortician was called, who covered the body with a sheet and placed it on a stretcher in the position in which it lay on the floor, and removed it to a mortuary. In lifting the body it was found to be lying in a pool of blood, from which it was then thought Mrs. Kennedy had died from a hemorrhage. She had given birth to a baby less than five weeks before. At the mortuary it was discovered that she had been murdered, and the doctor and police officers were called. It was found upon examination that she had nine knife wounds and two contusions on her body. There were a number of wounds on her left shoulder; one of two ragged gashes on the left side of her neck had severed the jugular vein, and a stab had penetrated the outer covering of the heart. There was a small, fresh wound, made that day, in her vagina, at the location of a childbirth laceration, and a blood stain therefrom was found on her panties. This did not necessarily prove an attempt to rape. It could have been caused by a strain, struggle, or fall. No spermatozia was found in the vagina. Her levis were torn from the right side of the waist to the right knee, which required considerable force.

On the day following the murder a butcher knife, with human blood on it, was found in a pile of leaves at the rear of the Kennedy apartment. This knife belonged to Chief of State Police Frank Young, and was kept in the kitchen of his apartment, only a few feet from the Kennedy home.

The defendant was a convict “trusty,” who had been assigned as a laborer to' the state police headquarters. He was serving his fourth term in the state penitentiary for the crime of burglary. Chief Young sent him twice each week to his apartment to do yard and other menial work. A day or two before the murder the defendant had used the knife mentioned to quarter a hog in Chief Young’s kitchen. On the day Mrs. Kennedy was murdered the defendant was sent to Chief Young’s apartment to work. None of the Chief’s family were at home.

On the day of the murder, Mrs. Flanigan, who lived in one of the apartments, employed defendant to wax her floors. There is evidence to the effect that he did not wax these floors, although he was paid for it. He was in or around these-apartments from the time he arrived in the morning until after four o’clock in the afternoon. There is no evidence that any other man was seen around them, with the exception of Frank Flanigan, who, with his wife occupied another of the apartments, and who was there only during lunch time.

Clothing worn by the defendant and by the deceased, and fingernail scrapings from each, and some knives, were sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, D. C., for examination. T. D. Beach, a special agent of that department, and its principal analytical chemist, testified regarding the condition of the clothing, and other things sent .to the Bureau. He stated that he examined the articles for blood stains, the presence of hairs, fibers, etc., and made chemical examination of stains and microscopic examination of materials. This witness testified that he found human blood on Mrs. Kennedy’s levis, shirt, shoes, panties, brassiere, and in scrapings from her fingernails. He also found human blood stains on the butcher knife mentioned, and on defendant’s trouser leg, and in the inside of the defendant’s right trouser pocket; at two places on the front of his shorts; and on the lower part of the front of his undershirt, and on one of his shoes.

The Kennedys had a black Scottie dog in the apartment and blade canine hairs were found on defendant’s trousers and shoes, but it could not be determined whether they were from the' Kennedy dog; but they were black and appeared to be like those taken from him.

Mrs. Flanagan went through the Kennedy apartment, calling Mrs. Kennedy at about 2:30 P.M. on the day she was murdered, but received no answer. She went back to her own apartment and from there to the Young’s back door and called defendant, but he did not answer. She then went to her own apartment and out the front door and saw the defendant, about 2:45 o’clock “at the end of the fence.” At that time he had a waxer in his hand, and when she saw him last he was standing at the front gate with his back to her.

The police examined the defendant’s clothing and did not find the several blood spots that were on them, which were later found at the laboratory in Washington.

On the night of November 21, following the death of Mrs. Kennedy, the defendant signed a typewritten confession admitting that he killed the deceased. Plis confession was in answer to questions propounded by police officers, the substance of which is as follows:

On the morning of November 19th he arrived at Chief Young’s apartment between 7:30 and 8:00 o’clock. He had access to the Chief’s apartment and practically everything in it. He worked there until one P.M. After Mr. and Mrs. Flanagan left, he went to Mrs. Kennedy’s apartment. He stated: “I figured I would get some, that she would let me, but I did not figure on hurting her.” He took the butcher-knife from Chief Young’s apartment to cut rags for waxing Mrs. Flanagan’s floors. He had it in a pocket of his overalls at the time he went to Mrs. Kennedy’s apartment. He knocked at the door and Mrs. Kennedy admitted him. They talked awhile about work. Mrs. Kennedy went into the bathroom and he followed her and “asked her for a date.” He said he meant “going to bed.” Mrs. Kennedy told him that she would tell on him. He got scared and stabbed her with the butcher knife which he had in his pocket. He first stabbed her in the left shoulder, he didn’t know how many times. He then stabbed her several times. He stabbed her once after she fell. He didn’t know how many times he stabbed her in all. She talked after he stabbed her, but he did not remember what' she said. He tore her levis after she was down on the floor in the bathroom. He “caught her pants and jerked them.” It took five or ten minutes to kill the deceased. He heard someone walking (probably Mrs. Flanagan), and went out at the back door. After killing Mrs. Kennedy he threw the knife in some leaves in a gully back of the Kennedy apartment, and then went to the Flanigan apartment and waxed the floors. He saw blood on the knife, but saw none on his clothing. He did not go to Mrs. Kennedy’s apartment to rape her.

The foregoing confession was admitted in evidence.

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Related

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446 P.2d 639 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1968)
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179 P.2d 1001 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1947)

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178 P.2d 592, 51 N.M. 77, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-young-nm-1947.