State v. Nordmark

Citations

• 84 Kan. 628
• 114 P. 1068
• 1911 Kan. LEXIS 383

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Evidence — Expert Testimony — Firearms. A person who has acquired special knowledge and skill as to the use of firearms, and hy experience, observation and practice has learned the effect of shots and bullets cutting through limbs or shrubs, is competent to testify whether a certain shrub or limb was cut by a bullet, and also whether certain empty shot shells had been loaded with large or small shot.</p> <p>2. Homicide — Circumstantial Evidence. The nature, location and physical characteristics of the scene of the homicide, and the conditions existing in the immediate vicinity, may be shown in evidence on the trial of the one charged with the ■crime as a part of the history of the transaction; and in the present case it is held, that the court was warranted in re«eiving in evidence empty shells found near the place of the homicide, a limb of a tree which stood near the place and which appeared to have been cut by shot fired from a gun, and photographs of the scene of the homicide.</p> <p>3. Criminal Law — Evidence Proving Another Offense as Well as the One Charged. Evidence which fairly tends to prove the felonious killing of the deceased should not be excluded because it may tend to prove that others were killed by the defendant at the same time and by the same means.</p> <p>4. New Trial — Statement by the Court of Reasons for Denying Motion. In denying a motion for a new trial the trial court is not required, on the request of the defendant, definitely to state the facts and circumstances brought out in the testimony which, in his opinion, support the different elements of the offense of which the defendant was convicted.</p> <p>.5. -Newly Discovered Evidence. A new trial should not be granted because of newly discovered evidence unless it is material and such as leads the court to think that it would probably produce a different verdict.</p> <p><6. Homicide — Circumstantial Evidence — Corpus Delicti — Guilty Agency. In a prosec