People v. Gary CA5

FACTS AND TRIAL COURT PROCEEDINGS

On the morning of August 30, 1976, Florence Millard, a widow in her 80‟s, was found semiconscious and crying in the hallway of her home, her hands tied and her face beaten beyond recognition. She had a nightgown and bloody bra around her neck. There was blood spattered on the walls in the hallway and on the floor in the bedroom. The metal lattice was torn away from the front screen door; a hole was punched in the screen on the back door and a tool had been used to unlock it. Millard died at the hospital on September 11, 1976. Homicide Detective Elvin Thomason, who worked on the case in 1976 and has now retired, testified that he responded to the scene of the assault and then went to the hospital where Millard was taken. He described Millard‟s face as badly beaten and swollen, with two black eyes. She had a two-inch cut on the right side of her chin. He was not able to observe any other parts of her body. Thomason visited Millard at the hospital on several subsequent occasions before she died, each time she was unconscious. Further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise stated.

2. During the course of his subsequent…