State v. Hal

214 N.W.2d 205 (1974)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D testified that casual acquaintances gave him a pill and told him it was a 'little sunshine' and would make him feel 'groovy.' D met Meacham in Oregon and they made the arrangement for a trip east. Meacham had a pistol. D drove all the way to Iowa without rest and was exhausted. D took the pill at Des Moines, it made him feel funny, and the road turned different colors and pulsated. Meacham was sleeping on the passenger side. D testified he heard strange noises from Meacham's throat, like growling. Meacham's face grew and his nose got long, and his head turned into a dog like the one D's stepfather had shot (which D explained at trial). D testified he got scared, picked up Meacham's gun, and shot him three times. D stated he did not remember much that happened for a while. D testified he had periods thinking Meacham was human and periods thinking Meacham was a dog. He drove back to the highway and traveled awhile, then turned off on a sideroad and removed Meacham's body from the car. D drove to What Cheer and tried there to wipe the blood from his hands. He then returned to see if Meacham was alive, kicked something in the road, saw it was Meacham's billfold, and took it. He removed the money from the billfold, discarded the billfold itself, and later used some of the money and threw away some of it. He also threw away the gun. D abandoned the car, took a bus to Chicago, hitchhiked through the Southwest, and turned himself in to officials in the State of Nevada. He voluntarily told officers about the incident, although in his original version he did not say anything about the claimed pill or its aftermath. A separate trial was held on the question of D's sanity to stand trial. A jury found him sane. D pleaded insanity at the time of the act and stood trial on the murder charge; a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. D had requested an instruction on insanity as a complete defense, tailored to include temporary insanity induced by drugs, but it had been refused. D appealed. D contends the drug caused temporary insanity, which constitutes a complete defense.