Gardner v. State

HERRMANN, Chief Justice:

The defendant, Louis H. Gardner, appeals a second degree murder conviction contending that the Trial Court’s failure to instruct the jury sua sponte on the defense of alibi was reversible error.

I

The defendant testified that he had been out drinking at a cafe on the evening in question, and that when he returned home he found the victim Ms. Brown, severely beaten and in a semiconscious state. He ran to a near-by hospital and persuaded two young men there to help him bring the victim to the hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival at 1:05 a. m. The doctor…