Mack v. State

Victim's taunting defendant by calling him names and comparing his sexual physique to another man's did not justify reducing a murder charge to voluntary manslaughter in the absence of evidence that victim recounted her allegedly adulterous behavior.

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Appellant David Causlee Mack, Jr. was convicted of the malice murder of his wife, and sentenced to life imprisonment.1 In his appeal, he questions the content of the trial court’s jury instruction on voluntary manslaughter and the trial court’s denial of his motion for new trial on the ground that the verdict is against the weight of the evidence.

1. The victim, Sylvia Hunter, died from a gunshot wound inflicted by a Springfield Arms 12-gauge single-barrel break-open shotgun fired at her from a distance of three to six feet at 1 a.m. on December 27, 1996. The shot was fired after Ms. Hunter had telephoned from the couple’s residence for emergency help. The 911 operator heard a male and female engaged in a violent argument, then a popping sound followed by the male voice using profanity and the female wheezing and gasping. A second phone call to 911 from the Hunter/Mack residence was placed by a crying man who identified himself as David Mack and reported that he had shot his wife. Appellant repeated his admission to the officers who arrived on the scene, and told them the victim should not have gone out and come home so late. The officers found a shotgun in the room with the victim’s body. In a videotaped statement to the investigating officer three hours after the crime2 , appellant stated that, upon her return that night, his wife had angered him by calling him names and comparing the size of his penis disfavorably with that of another man. Appellant said he then went to a storage shed where he got the shotgun, and returned to the home where he asked his wife to recant her statements. When she did not, he pointed the gun at her legs and pulled the trigger, but the gun did not fire. He then opened the breech and, when she angered him again, he closed the breech and fired again, this time fatally striking his wife in the abdomen.

Mack v. State

Victim's taunting defendant by calling him names and comparing his sexual physique to another man's did not justify reducing a murder charge to voluntary manslaughter in the absence of evidence that victim recounted her allegedly adulterous behavior.

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