Wilson v. State

548 S.W.2d 323, 1976 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 328
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedOctober 6, 1976
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 548 S.W.2d 323 (Wilson v. State) 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
Wilson v. State, 548 S.W.2d 323, 1976 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 328 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

TATUM, Judge.

OPINION

Appellant was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death by electrocution. We must reverse.

The deceased, Larry Jackson, and a companion left a nightclub in Knoxville known as “Uncle Sam’s” at about 3:30 o’clock A.M., on May 9, 1975. They were students at the University of Tennessee and worked at Uncle Sam’s as bartenders. They were “high”. The deceased’s blood alcohol content was .14%. They encountered a Mr. Johnson accompanied by a young lady and the deceased and Mr. Johnson commenced “horsing around”. The deceased accidentally bumped into the young lady, knocking her down. The deceased and his companion helped her up and deceased apologized to her. Johnson and deceased continued to “horse around” until the play was beginning to develop into a fight.

Appellant and a companion entered the parking lot from another club while Jackson and Johnson were “acting out karate”. Appellant sat down in the front seat of his car on the driver’s side. In the meantime, deceased and Johnson, still “acting out karate”, bumped into appellant’s automobile. Appellant then got out of his car with a pistol and held it in both hands aiming it at about eye level. He made the statement, “I’ll teach you to bump into my car”, and shot the deceased in the chest, killing him. Appellant and deceased were not acquainted with each other.

There was conflict in the testimony but the jury accredited the State’s proof that deceased did not move toward appellant and said nothing to him. Deceased was about seven or eight feet from appellant when he was shot.

[324]*324Appellant testified that he had sat down in the front seat of his car, but his legs were still on the outside and that Jackson and Johnson were against the car door, preventing him from getting his legs in the car. Jackson and Johnson, according to appellant, then moved to the rear of his car. Appellant said that he had asked them to move away from his car and the deceased made an obscene remark in reply. He had a money box in his car and got his pistol from the box because he was afraid. He said that the deceased stepped toward him from the rear of his car. Appellant had pushed the door open and got out of his car. He said that deceased made a karate movement and yelled and then he shot the deceased. Appellant then fled to Gatlinburg.

In an extra-judicial statement given by appellant, he estimated that he had the pistol in his hand for a total of thirty seconds.

We are first confronted with the question as to whether the evidence supports a conviction of murder in the first degree. In State v. Buffington, 532 S.W.2d 556 (Tenn.1976), the Supreme Court reviews the rules that we must follow:

“The premeditation-deliberation element of first degree murder requires that the act be performed with a cool purpose. Drye v. State, 181 Tenn. 637, 184 S.W.2d 10 (1944); Winton v. State, 151 Tenn. 177, 268 S.W. 633 (1925); Turner v. State, 119 Tenn. 663, 108 S.W. 1139 (1908); Poole v. State, 61 Tenn. 288 (1872); Dale v. State, 18 Tenn. 551 (1837). In order to constitute murder in the first degree, the cool purpose must be formed and the deliberate intention conceived in the mind of the accused, in the absence of passion, to take the life of the person slain. Winton v. State, supra. If the purpose to kill is first formed during the heat of passion, the accused, to be guilty of first degree murder, must have committed the act after the passion has subsided. ‘Passion’ as here used means any of the human emotions known as anger, rage, sudden resentment or terror which renders the mind incapable of cool reflection. Drye v. State, supra.
‘The mental state of the assailant . . rather than the length of time . is the material point. . . . The mental process . . . may have been instantaneous, and the question of vital importance is — was the mind, at that moment, so far free from the influence of excitement, or passion, as to be capable of reflecting and acting with a sufficient degree of coolness and deliberation of purpose; and was the death of the person assaulted, the object sought to be accomplished — the end determined upon.’ Clarke v. State, 218 Tenn. 259, 268, 402 S.W.2d 863 (1966).
Once the fact of killing has been established, the law presumes it to be murder in the second degree. Witt v. State, 46 Tenn. 5 (1868). And, the burden is upon the state to prove premeditation-deliberation which raises the degree of the crime to first degree murder. Bailey v. State, 479 S.W.2d 829 (Tenn.Cr.App.1972). If the killing is accomplished by poisoning or by lying in wait, premeditation is obvious. But, in all other cases a conviction of first degree murder must be supported by evidence of some other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing. Drye v. State, supra. The nature of the fact to be proven, i. e., the mental state of the accused, is such that ordinarily only circumstantial evidence is available.”

The question presented here is a close one but we are constrained to hold that the evidence supports the finding of premeditation and does not preponderate against the jury verdict. The only provocation or cause for passion is that the deceased bumped against appellant’s automobile. The deceased was unarmed. Appellant was already in his automobile and could have closed the door and left the scene with no difficulty. Instead, he procured his pistol, got out of his automobile and took deliberate and careful aim at the deceased, telling deceased that he would teach him to bump against his automobile.

[325]*325In reviewing the evidence, we must take the verdict as having established the credibility of the State’s witnesses and the conviction will not be disturbed unless the evidence clearly preponderates against it. State v. Ballington, supra. The evidence does not preponderate against the verdict of the jury finding the appellant guilty of murder in the first degree and we must overrule the first assignment of error.

Appellant complains of the Trial Court’s admitting evidence of other violent and unlawful acts allegedly committed by him.

A detective testified that he had previously seen the pistol used in this slaying and identified it as being appellant’s pistol. The detective testified further that this pistol was previously seen while he was investigating another shooting in which appellant shot another individual with a shotgun through the windshield of an automobile. The evidence of the previous shooting was admitted by the Trial Court on the theory that it identified the appellant as being the assailant in the case sub judice.

Before trial, appellant gave a lengthy statement to the State’s attorneys in the presence of his own attorney, all of whom examined appellant at length and appellant admitted shooting the deceased and described his version of the shooting in elaborate detail. His version was that he shot the deceased in self-defense. We think that under these circumstances, it was error for the Trial Judge to admit the evidence of the other shooting on the issue of identity.

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Bluebook (online)
548 S.W.2d 323, 1976 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 328, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-state-tenncrimapp-1976.