Davis v. State

280 S.W. 636, 170 Ark. 602, 1926 Ark. LEXIS 200
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMarch 1, 1926
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 280 S.W. 636 (Davis v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. State, 280 S.W. 636, 170 Ark. 602, 1926 Ark. LEXIS 200 (Ark. 1926).

Opinion

Wood, J.

The appellant was convicted on an indictment which charged him with the crime of murder in the first degree in the killing- of one Horace Harper. The report of the grand jury which returned the indictment against the appellant recited that it had examined into two cases very thoroughly, and had returned indictments against both, charging them with murder in the first degree; that, from all the evidence before them, they confidently felt that conviction ought to follow and the death penalty imposed. Upon the filing of this report the court ordered that the words “and the déath penalty imposed” be stricken from the report. The cause was set for hearing one week after the return of the indictment. The appellant moved to quash the indictment on the ground that the report was -written by the prosecuting attorney, who requested the grand jury to allow him to make a special report containing the above language. The appellant likewise demurred to the indictment, one of the grounds being the same as that set up in his motion to quash. The court asked the appellant if he desired to take testimony on the motion to quash, and he replied in the affirmative, and asked for certain witnesses, who were not then in the courtroom. The court declined to send for these witnesses, and asked the attorney for the appellant if there were other evidence which he desired to introduce, and the attorney answered in the negative.

The testimony on behalf of the State, was substantially as follows: Julia Tobins testified that' she lived at Crossett, and was at the towns of Montrose, Portland and Wilmot the night Horace Harper was killed. She saiv the appellant that night. He came up to Harper’s car, and asked Harper to take him to Wilmot, and .what the charge would be. Harper replied that it would be $2. Witness, appellant and Harper were in the front seat, and a lady and her husband were in the back seat as far as Portland. At Portland the other passengers got out, and the appellant got in the back seat. Harper told the appellant that hé didn’t know him, and asked him if he had just as soon pay him there as to wait, and appellant paid him. Harper then took him on to Wilmot. Appellant gave Harper a five-dollar bill. Harper went to the drug store and got the change and gave the appeh lant $3. Witness, appellant and Harper went nearly to Wilmot on the highway, when the appellant asked Harper to stop and let him out of the car. Appellant opened the car door and got out, and witness saw him with a pistol in his hand pointed at Harper. He didn’t let Harper say anything; just told him to put his hands up and to give him (appellant) his $2. Appellant told witness to get out of the car, and witness did so. Appellant searched Harper. When appellant got ready to search him, Harper moved over to where witness had been sitting. Appellant got the $2. He told Harper to turn his back, and appellant stepped back about a step from the car and shot Harper. Appellant shot Harper three times, and Harper jumped out of the car and ran back towards Parkdale. Appellant ran toward Wilmot. Witness followed Harper to where he fell, and called him, and he could not answer. Witness turned back toward the car, and appellant was coming from the other way loading his pistol. He asked witness where Harper was, and she told him he was gone. Appellant told witness to get through a crack in the fence. Witness started to obey, and he asked her if she could drive a car. She said she oould, and appellant said, “Drive me home,” and witness drove the appellant to Wilmot somewhere, at a lady’s house, where he got out and went in. Witness asked a man on the porch for a drink of water, and when the man came out witness told him that the appellant had killed Harper. A boy named Frog started the car, and he and the witness drove the car to his cousin’s house, a man named Hugo, where they stayed until about nine o’clock, and Hugo took witness to the sheriff’s house. Witness told the sheriff about the killing. Appellant told witness that he had rather not have killed the man where he did. Witness was asked: “Q. Did he mistreat you in any way that night?” And answered, “Yes sir. Q. In what way? A. He had me to get out of the car.” .Appellant’s counsel here objected, and the court sustained the objection to the questions and answers, and the court withdrew the same from the jury and instructed the jury to disregard them. This occurred in September, 1925, in Ashley County, Arkansas. It was not very dark at the time of the killing. Witness could see a man, as the car lights were on. She didn’t know how far appellant went from the car before he came back: The first man witness told about the killing was a colored man, and she didn’t know his name.

Witness Miller testified that, about the middle of September, a man came to his house and woke witness up and told him that a man was killed. Witness went to see about it. He found tbe body of Harper about a half a mile north of Wilmot, in the ditch beside the highway. It was between eight and nine o’clock. Harper was shot in the right breast, ranging toward the left side. There was a spot of blood on the carrier of the car where Harper jumped out on the left side. There was a knife in the road ten or fifteen steps from the car, and witness picked it up. Witness could tell from the tracks the way Harper ran. He ran between seventy-five and one hundred yards. His pockets were turned wrong side out, that is, his right-hand pocket, and his left-hand pocket was partly turned. The knife was closed.

Huey Parker testified that he lived at Wilmot, and saw the appellant on the night Horace Harper was killed, and told the appellant that he had killed the boy, and appellant asked witness if he was dead. Witness told appellant Harper was dead, and appellant said that Harper asked for his money, and went in his pocket like he was going after his gun, and appellant shot him and jumped out and ran down the road. Witness, at this point, was asked the following by the ■ prosecuting attorney: “Q. Now, that’s not what you told me a few minutes ago, is it? A. No sir.” Appellant’s counsel •objected. The court overruled his objection, and appellant duly excepted. The prosecuting attorney continued the examination as follows: “Q. Didn’t you tell me that you asked him what he shot him for, and he shot, him for his $2? A. Yes sir. Q. That-’s what he shot him for? A. Yes sir. Q. When I asked you, you didn’t say anything like going in his pocket for a pistol? A. Yes sir; like he was going in his pocket to give it to him. Q. The reason he shot him was for his two dollars ? A. Yes sir. ’ ’

On cross-examination the witness stated that the conversation occurred the night of the killing’. Appellant said he wanted the man to give him his money. The man started like he was going after his money, and the appellant said he thought the man was going after a gun, and appellant shot him. . '

Cecil Deal testified that lie was the jailer and deputy sheriff of Ashley County. As such he delivered the appellant to the penitentiary in 1921 on a charge of rob-, bery, on a sentence of four years. The appellant’s counsel objected to the testimony. The court overruled the objection, to which ruling the appellant duly excepted.

The 'State then called John C. Riley, who testified, over the objection and exception of the appellant, that he was sheriff of Ashley County, and heard a conversation about thirty minutes before, between the prosecuting attorney and Huey Parker.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Arkansas State Highway Commission v. Duff
440 S.W.2d 563 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1969)
Moore v. State
299 S.W.2d 838 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1957)
Clayton v. State
89 S.W.2d 732 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1935)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
280 S.W. 636, 170 Ark. 602, 1926 Ark. LEXIS 200, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-state-ark-1926.