State v. Austin

MARTIN, Justice.

The state’s evidence at trial tended to show the following: In April 1985 defendant and Mary Sue “Susie” Blankenship White were living together in a house on Jenkins Road in Burke County with Susie’s two daughters, Sheila Renee, aged nineteen, who was mentally handicapped, and Christy, aged fourteen. They had lived together as a family for about eight years. Defendant had received total disability from Social Security because of some serious injuries he had sustained in a car accident some ten years previously. He was also a chronic alcoholic. Although he had quit drinking for…