Godley v. Commonwealth

Opinion

BARROW, J.

This appeal of a second degree murder conviction challenges (1) the failure of the trial court, hearing the case without a jury, to find the defendant not guilty based upon the defense of irresistible impulse and (2) the sufficiency of the evidence on the issue of malice. We conclude that the evidence supported the trial court’s decision that the defendant’s act was not excused because of an irresistible impulse and that the evidence of malice was sufficient to sustain the conviction. For these reasons, we affirm.

Godley shot and killed his girlfriend at her place of employment. She was walking across a parking lot when the defendant drove up, got out of his automobile, struck her and shot her with a pistol he was carrying. He walked into the plant and told a worker to call the police because he had just killed his “old lady.” He returned to the parking lot and placed a blanket under his girlfriend’s head. When the police arrived he was standing in the parking lot and admitted, “I shot her.”

Since petitioner did not testify, the only explanation of his conduct was revealed by what he told a psychiatrist after the shooting. He said that, when he realized his girlfriend had surreptitiously left him, he went to her place of employment to find her. An argument ensued, and she confronted him with the revelation that her child, whom he thought he was the father of, was not his. At that point he “hit her with a gun that he had in his hand, grabbed her, pulled her and she tried to pull away and then . . . the gun fired.”

Approximately one month prior to the shooting Godley obtained treatment from a clinical psychologist who saw him on four occasions before the shooting occurred. This psychologist testified that Godley had a “borderline personality disorder” and was “prone to trouble with impulse control.” When asked if Godley “could control thé impulse,” he responded, “I am not clear on that because I wasn’t present at the time.” The psychiatrist who saw Godley after the shooting testified that when Godley shot his girlfriend there was nothing “that made him more unable to resist that impulse than at other times, except for the extremity of the emotional situation.”

Godley argues that questions directed by the trial judge to the psychiatrist and psychologist reveal a lack of understanding by the judge that undermines the validity of his determination that Godley did not kill while under the influence of an irresistible impulse. But, if the trial judge’s questions imply a lack of understanding, the responses to his questions presumably corrected any misunderstanding he may have had. Thus, we cannot conclude simply from the trial court’s questions that his decision after hearing the testimony was based on a lack of understanding.

Godley also contends that the trial judge’s comments indicate that he assumed the defendant was angry and that his anger was that of a normal individual confronted with the same circumstances. This conclusion, however, was one the trial judge could have reached, and apparently did reach, based on the evidence.

The psychiatric testimony was inconclusive on the issue of irresistible impulse. This defense is applicable only where the accused’s mind has become “so impaired by disease that he is totally deprived of the mental power to control or restrain his act.” Thompson v. Commonwealth, 193 Va. 704, 718, 70 S.E.2d 284, 292 (1952). Although Godley may have had “trouble with impulse, control,” neither psychiatrist testified that he was “totally deprived of the mental power to control or restrain” himself from shooting his girlfriend. Even if one of them had, the trial court was not required to accept the experts’ opinions as conclusive. McLane v. Commonwealth, 202 Va. 197, 205-06, 116 S.E.2d 274, 281 (1960).

Those who saw Godley at the time of the slaying described his behavior which reflected his state of mind. His “actions, conduct, appearance and behavior . . . prior to, at the time of, and subsequent to the slaying” demonstrated his control of his behavior. Id. at 205, 116 S.E.2d at 281. This evidence together with the ambiguous expert testimony support the trial judge’s decision that Godley was not totally deprived of his ability to control his actions.

On the remaining issue we determine that there was sufficient evidence of malice to sustain the conviction of second degree murder. Godley’s use of a firearm, his striking the victim before he shot her and their argument which preceded the shooting are facts upon which malice could have been found.

For the foregoing reasons the trial court’s decision is affirmed.

Affirmed.

Keenan, J., concurred.