Cain v. State

100 So. 578, 135 Miss. 892, 1924 Miss. LEXIS 80
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJune 16, 1924
DocketNo. 23955
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 100 So. 578 (Cain v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cain v. State, 100 So. 578, 135 Miss. 892, 1924 Miss. LEXIS 80 (Mich. 1924).

Opinion

Ethbidge, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The appellant, Cain, was indicted for the murder of Lee Holly, and was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of seventeen years.

The deceased,-Lee Holly, and Mrs. Cain were formerly husband and wife, and by said marriage had three children, one daughter, who was married at the time of the killing, and two small sons. A few years before the killing Mrs. Cain, then Mrs. Holly, procured a divorce from Holly, the deceased, and some six months afterward married the appellant, Cain, and they lived together as husband and wife until a short time before the killing.

Mrs. Cain went to visit her daughter, Mrs. Brooks Stinson, who was working at a mill in Lowndes county, Miss., where Lee Holly also lived, and where he operated a commissary. During the visit at her daughter’s house Mrs. Cain decided to quit Mr. Cain and come and live with her daughter, and she and one of her srqall sons went back to the Cain home and procured her effects and moved them to Brooks Stinson’s house. Stinson for some reason objected to Mrs. Cain moving back under the circumstances because she was the wife of Cain. Mr. Holly caused a house to be built near the commissary where he was working, and Mrs. Cain moved into the house so built and occupied it with one of her small sons, while Holly and another of her sons occupied the rear of the commis[898]*898sary as a room. But Holly and the two hoys and Mrs. Cain all ate in the new house so built by Mr. Holly; she doing the cooking for all of them and Holly furnishing the food. On the Saturday before the killing Holly took Mrs. Cain to Aberdeen for the purpose of her filing a bill against the appellant, Cain, for a divorce, and Holly paid the cash payment required on the fee by giving his personal check therefor. On the following day Holly took Mrs. Cain to a public gathering of some kind near the line between Lowndes and Monroe counties, and it seems that Cain was also at this gathering and tried to have a conversation with Mrs. Cain, his wife, who declined to talk with him. On the following day, Monday, Cain and a brother of his came down to near where the mill was in a car belonging to Cain’s brother, where the brother stopped with the car, and Cain went on to the mill, and stood around the mill for some time, had a conversation with Brooks Stinson, his wife’s son-in-law, and after a time went to the house occupied by Mrs. Cain, and went in the house. When he went into the house, he found Mrs. Cain and one of her small sons and Mr. Holly in the room. Mr. Holly was sitting on a trunk, and Mrs. Cain was lying on the bed, being sick. According to the boy who was present Cain came into the house and looked first at Mr. Holly and then at Mrs. Cain, and back at Holly, and then pulled his pistol, shooting Holly, the ball striking Holly’s cheek in front, and penetrating the flesh, and coming out of the rear of his ear. Holly jumped up and grappled with Cain, and they scuffled out of the house fighting together and fell over a small wagon belonging to the small boy; Cain being underneath and Holly on top of him, when Brooks Stinson came up and disarmed Cain by taking the pistol away from him. Both men arose, and Holly ran back in the house and closed the door, and Cain followed, pushed the door open, and entered into a struggle with Holly. By some means they were separated, and Holly was carried to a house near by. Cain then procured an ax, and was pursuing Mrs. Cain with the ax. She called to Stin[899]*899son for protection, and he got between Cain and Mrs. Cain. It appears that the noise made caused Holly to think that Cain was attacking the children, and, he came out of the house where he was concealed, and Cain took after him with the ax. Holly retreated. In the meantime Stinson had gone to get a car for the purpose of carrying Holly to a hospital, and as Cain came up with Holly near where Stinson was with the automobile, according to some of the witnesses, Holly picked up a piece of a baseball bat, and held it in his hand. According to other witnesses he was standing begging Cain not to kill him; that he had done nothing to him. Gain approached and struck Holly with the back of the ax, crushing his skull, and struck twice at him with the blade of the ax, but did not inflict fatal wounds with the blade of the ax. Stinson testified that he then asked Cain to let him take Holly to a hospital in the automobile. At first Cain would not do so, using vile epithets with reference to Holly, but finally let Stinson place him in the automobile and take him to a hospital, where Holly shortly afterwards died.

During the trouble some one had gone to Ottley, who owned the mill, and he and another man came down in a car armed with a gun and arrested Cain and carried him to jail. They said that Cain stated to them that he came down there to kill or get killed. Cain testified that he did not know that Holly was in the house, and that he went in to see Mrs. Cain, and that when he came in that Holly made a movement as if to draw a weapon, and that he, Cain, shot Holly in self-defense, believing he was going to draw a weapon; that Holly rose and grappled with him, and they went out of the house struggling together and fell, and while he was down with Holly on top of him that some one disarmed him; that he did not know what happened until just before striking Holly with the ax, when he saw Holly with a piece of the baseball bat, and he struck Holly with the ax in self-defense.

[900]*900Mrs. Cain was introduced, and testified in behalf of Cain, her husband, and contradicted her sons as to how the killing occurred, and contradicted them as to Cain attacking her and pursuing her with an ax. In examining Cain the attorneys asked him:

“Q. Did you know his reputation for peace and violence (referring to Lee Holly, the deceased) ? A. Yes, sir.

“Q. Did you know whether he was considered a dangerous man or not?

“The state objects to the form of the question.

“The court: Yes.

“The appellant’s attorney asked what he thought of him as an adversary.

“State’s Attorney: We object to what he thinks of him personally. You can impeach a man’s reputation in the usual way, but his personal opinion of him makes no difference.

“Appellant’s Attorney: It makes a difference when you have a difficulty with a man:

“State’s Attorney: I say not.

“The Court: The objection is sustained.”

The refusal of the court to permit Cain to state what he thought of Holly as an adversary constitutes the first assignment of error. The personal opinion of Cain as to whether Holly was a dangerous man or not is not relevant. If he was a dangerous man that must be established by his general reputation in the community in which he lived.

The defendant sought to prove by the witness Irwin a conversation with Holly with reference to Cain. In answer to the question: “Tell the jury what that conversation was,” the witness said:

“It was after he had done taken his wife — taken his wife away from him over to Lowndes county.

“Q. How long was it before the killing? A. It was Friday before the killing Monday. I told Mr. Holly- — I asked him — I said, ‘Lee, what are you hanging around [901]

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Related

Weed v. State
406 So. 2d 24 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1981)
Pearson v. State
179 So. 2d 792 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
100 So. 578, 135 Miss. 892, 1924 Miss. LEXIS 80, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cain-v-state-miss-1924.