Cook v. State

171 S.W. 227, 75 Tex. Crim. 350, 1914 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 479
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas·Decided November 25, 1914·No. No. 3294.·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

HARPER, Judge.

—Appellant was convicted of murder in the second *351 degree and his punishment assessed at twenty-five years confinement in the State penitentiary.

This is the second appeal in this case, the opinion on the former appeal being found reported in 71 Texas Crim. Rep., 533, 160 S. W. Rep., 465. We then held that the evidence did not present the issue of manslaughter, and although appellant earnestly insists that the issue is raised by the testimony, after a careful perusal of the record we see no reason to change our opinion. The deceased was named D. B. Hope. Appellant, some five years before the tragedy, had married a daughter of deceased. Two years before appellant killed Mr. Hope the wife of appellant had left him and returned to her father’s home and deceased had been supporting and caring for his daughter and child. B. F. Black testified that at the time appellant and his wife separated, appellant was at work for him at his hotel, and he “just seemed like he didn’t know what he was to do or was doing; he didn’t seem to be at himself; all the time he wasn’t busy he would talk about his wife and child to me; it hurt him a mighty lot that he couldn’t stay with her; he would talk about his child mostly.” This was some year and a half or more before appellant killed deceased, Black testifying that after appellant quit clerking for him in his hotel appellant worked at Goodwin’s, Childs’ and other places. The witness Black does say that shortly before the killing, while appellant was working for Childs, he was out hunting and slept with appellant one night, and that appellant that night talked about his wife and child, and said he had been over there to see them and Mrs. Hope had closed the door in his face, and appellant made the remark, “I am going to see my son or clean up that hill over there,”-—meaning the Hope home. Witness says he told him he had better not. It is further made to appear that appellant’s wife, some days before the killing, had gone on a visit to a sister in Oklahoma, and carried the child with her. That deceased, her father, carried her to the train.

W. B. MeClurkan, a merchant of Denton, testified that between the time Mrs. Cook left for Oklahoma and the date of the tragedy he saw appellant and deceased talking in the town of Denton, and heard appellant speak of his wife and child. That appellant seemed excited and mad, and that deceased, Mr. Hope, was trying to pacify him.

W. G. Childs, with whom appellant was staying at the time of the tragedy, testified that appellant told him that Mr. Hope had sent his wife and child to Oklahoma; that he was considerably worried about it but he, witness, would not talk to him about it. That he asked appellant, “What could you do, you can’t make them bring them back”; ■appellant replying he “could clean up the whole damn hill—he could do that.” This occurred some four or five days before the killing. Witness further testified that on the day of the killing, appellant received a letter from a brother-in-law in Oklahoma; that he, witness, read the letter at the request of appellant. Appellant was mad and after witness read it tore the letter up. This letter from the brother-in-law told appellant where his wife was, and said, “Claude, it seems *352 you blame daddy Hope for Lou (appellant’s wife) and .Don being up here; that Hope, deceased, was not to blame, and that the writer of the letter (appellant’s brother-in-law) was solely to blame.” This witness further testified that after appellant had read this letter, and ate his dinner, appellant left his (witness’) home carrying a Winchester rifle with him, going in the direction of deceased’s home. Before a great length of time he saw appellant; that appellant had then been back to his (witness’) house and changed his clothes and was going towards town, and appellant said, “Well, it is all over,” and witness asked him, “What’s all over?” when appellant replied, "I shot him,” and upon being asked if he had killed Hope, replied, “I don’t know.” He was then asked what, if anything, was said at the time, and appellant replied, “I asked him where Lou and Don was and he claimed deceased (replied, ‘Right where I am going to keep them—and you keep off my place.’ ” Witness replied to this that he had heard it and he had heard-someone say that appellant had shot deceased off the binder, when appellant replied, “It’s a damned lie—nobody never seen it.” Appellant also said in this conversation that at the time deceased made the 'remark above attributed to him, he, deceased, shook the finger of his left hand at him, and dropped his right hand behind him.

In the above statement we have not related nor referred to the theory of the State as made by the testimony, but on the issue of whether or not the court erred in failing to submit the issue of manslaughter, we have taken the evidence in its most favorable light to appellant. The record discloses beyond dispute that appellant and his wife had separated some two years prior to this time; there is nothing to indicate that deceased was the cause of the separation, and the record discloses that deceased and appellant had met many times after the separation took place. But it is contended, as appellant puts it, when deceased “shipped appellant’s wife and child out of the country, this was a new provocation.” The testimony of Mr. McClurkan, brought out by defendant, shows that from the time deceased’s wife left to go to Oklahoma and the killing, that appellant and deceased met in the town of Denton, and had a conversation about the wife and child going away; that appellant was apparently excited about it, and deceased was explaining and trying to pacify appellant. So it was certainly not the first meeting after his wife and child had been “shipped out of the country,” as contended by appellant, but which the whole record discloses is not the-correct way "to put it, for it shows that she had merely gone on a visit to a sister, a trip for which Mr. Hope, deceased, was in no way responsible, he having merely carried her to the train in broad daylight, a fact of which appellant was fully aware, as shown by the testimony of Mr. Childs and others and is in no way disputed in the record.

But it may be contended, even if he did know about his wife going to Oklahoma, and had met Mr. Hope in Denton and talked to him about it, this would not deprive him of his right to arm himself with a Winchester rifle, and go to Mr. Hope and inquire about where his wife and child had gone. Granted, if this had been his mission, and he did *353 not know where they had gone to; but the testimony of Mr. Childs shows that appellant had received a letter from his brother-in-law explaining to him that his wife was on a visit to her sister, and that (as he understood appellant blamed Mr. Hope with their taking the trip) daddy Hope, deceased, had nothing to do with them taking the trip—that he, appellant’s brother-in-law, was responsible for it. Hot only this, but the testimony of Mr. Childs and Mr. Black shows that appellant knew where his wife and child were and had known this fact for several days, and this testimony is in no way denied or disputed in the record.

Again, under the rule of law stated in the Pharr case, 7 Texas Crim. App., 472,-and other cases referred to in the opinion on the former appeal in this case, 71 Texas Crim. Rep., 532, 160 S. W.

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Cook v. State, 171 S.W. 227, 75 Tex. Crim. 350, 1914 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 479 (Tex. 1914).

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