Wilkerson v. State

342 S.W.2d 431, 170 Tex. Crim. 525, 1961 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 5255
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 1, 1961
Docket32661
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 342 S.W.2d 431 (Wilkerson v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilkerson v. State, 342 S.W.2d 431, 170 Tex. Crim. 525, 1961 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 5255 (Tex. 1961).

Opinions

WOODLEY, Presiding Judge

The offense is murder; the punishment, 99 years.

The indictment alleged that appellant did with malice aforethought kill Kathryn Fay Wilkerson by beating and striking her with a bottle.

[526]*526The evidence shows that Kathryn Fay Wilkerson, the deceased, was the wife of appellant.

The nude body of deceased was found lying on a bed in the room she occupied with appellant. There were numerous lacerations and bruises about the body, including a bruise over the cheek bone and cuts in the scalp, the largest being on the left side going to the bone.

There was blood in the deceased’s hair and a pool of blood on the floor at the head of the bed, and glass from a broken half gallon bottle on the floor.

Appellant told Officer Senkel that his wife had fallen off the bed and hit her head.

After his arrest appellant made a statement to City Detective Dhority which was introduced in evidence. Omitting the warning, which appears to conform to the requirements of Art. 727 C.C.P., the statement reads:

“This evening, August 21, 1959, about 5 o’clock I had a argument with my wife Kathryn and hit her on the left ear with the side of my right hand. I went outside and played dominoes for about 40 minutes then I went back into my apartment. My wife said she was going outside and get a drink, and I asked her not to do it and she said she was anyway. I picked up a half gallon wine bottle by the bed and hit her in the back of the head. She started bleeding and I took her to the bathroom and washed her head off and put some after shave lotion on it and it slacked off bleeding. I put her on the bed and took all her clothes off and went back outside and started playing dominoes. I heard my wife fall off the bed and I went back inside and put a icetray on her head and cranked up the phonograph and played ‘Signed, Sealed and Delivered,’ and went back outside and soon as the record was over I went back inside and turned the phonograph off and turned the radio on. My wife was still on the floor and I covered her up and went back outside and played dominoes for a while. I came back in and tried to hear if her heart was beating and when I couldn’t hear it I called for someone to help me. Then I lifted her up on the bed.”

Dr. Ashworth, who did the autopsy, testified that there were some two dozen bruises and lacerations on different parts of the body, several of which were in the scalp, the longest a deep cut over the left side of the head, compatible with a blow to the [527]*527head with a bottle. A deep laceration or tear over the interior surface of the liver, compatible with the type of injury from being kicked in the abdomen, and fractured ribs compatible with the type of injury which would result from being kicked in the ribs were found during the autopsy.

Dr. Ashworth testified that some of the bruises could be explained by the deceased having fallen on the floor, but others which produced serious internal injury would require a greater amount of force than would have been achieved by the body falling a relatively short distance, as from the height of a bed. He expressed the opinion that the cause of death was primarily a blow to the head, and the injury to the liver could have been had it occurred first.

Appellant testified as a witness in his own behalf at the trial. His version of the death of his wife was that she had been drinking wine; that he got her to go to bed about 11:30, at which time she was very drunk. He left and was gone about an hour. Later she “said she was going to get something to drink from somebody and I asked her not to. She said, ‘Well, I will show you/ so I kept begging her, not to get drunk again, because I didn’t want her to get drunk. I just came in and I had been gone ten days, and she said, T will get something from somebody/ that is when I lost my temper and hit her on the side of the head with the wine bottle. It broke and cut her head.

“Q. What was she trying to do when you lost your temper? A. She was trying to get by me, scuffling, trying to get by me to go get something to drink from some of the neighbors.”

Appellant further testified that after striking her with the bottle he took his wife to the bathroom and washed her hair out, that she showed no anger about his hitting her with the bottle. “She realized that I was only trying to do what was right for her and keep her from getting drunk again. She knew she had done wrong by getting drunk that morning and starting again.”

After washing the blood off he put her on the bed, took her clothes off, covered her with a blanket or quilt and “gave her a towel and asked her to lie there — so her head wouldn’t start bleeding again.” He left the room and resumed playing dominoes with a young boy on the porch. Later he heard a noise in the room and when he went in he found his wife on the floor. He told her to get back in bed but she said the floor was cool and she was sick at the stomach, but would be all right shortly and would get up. [528]*528He then said if she didn’t mind he would go play some more dominoes and she agreed and he resumed playing.

He checked on her later and found her half way under the bed, “I said, ‘Good God, get in bed and lie down,’ and she said, ‘No, I am still sick.’ I said, ‘All right, lie there if you want to lie in that dirt,’ and I went to the bathroom. I came back through and asked her again to get up and she said, ‘No, I am still sick.’ I asked her if she wanted anything, and she said, ‘No.’ I went out there and it started getting dark and we couldn’t see to play dominoes, so I come in the house and her feet was on the other side of the bed and she was about halfway under the bed and I pulled my shirt off and told her, I said, ‘Well, I might as well go to bed, you are no company to me today,’ I said, T might as well go to bed and forget about enjoying your company,’ and she didn’t say, she didn’t answer me, so I reached down in the ice box, got me a glass of water and ate a bite of celery and some beans and stood there nibbling on some cheese and shut the box and turned around to her and said, ‘Get up, now, let’s get in bed,’ and she didn’t answer, * * * .”

The charge of the court submitted murder with and without malice and aggravated assault, and the defense of accident, and instructed the jury to acquit unless they found beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant voluntarily and intentionally killed the deceased and that her death was caused by beating and striking with a bottle, as alleged in the indictment.

We find the evidence sufficient to sustain the jury’s verdict finding appellant guilty of murder with malice and assessing his punishment at 99 years in the penitentiary.

On cross-examination a photograph of the nude body of the deceased was exhibited to appellant and he was asked concerning various bruises shown by such photograph. He testified in part:

“Q. Is that how she appeared there that day? A. I don’t recall just exactly how she looked, to be exact.
“Q. But you said you didn’t see those bruises that are there in that picture ? A. I saw the one on her shoulder and the one on her cheek.
“Q. You can’t display that to the jury; how about the bruises in that picture, do you remember seeing those bruises like that when you put her on the bed or when the police came? A. She wasn’t bruised like that.

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Related

State v. Banks
564 S.W.2d 947 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1978)
Sistrunk v. State
486 S.W.2d 304 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1972)
Pait v. State
433 S.W.2d 702 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1968)
Burns v. State
388 S.W.2d 690 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1965)
Brumbelow v. State
364 S.W.2d 232 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1963)
Brown v. State
355 S.W.2d 718 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1962)
Wilkerson v. State
342 S.W.2d 431 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1961)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
342 S.W.2d 431, 170 Tex. Crim. 525, 1961 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 5255, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilkerson-v-state-texcrimapp-1961.