Fitzpatrick v. State

37 Ark. 238
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMay 15, 1881
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 37 Ark. 238 (Fitzpatrick 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
Fitzpatrick v. State, 37 Ark. 238 (Ark. 1881).

Opinion

English, C. J.

i. Entering upon record Ffa°f oT ment. I. It is submitted by counsel for appellant that the record does not affirmatively show that the indictment was returned into court by the grand jury,

The term of the Circuit Court of Phillips county, at which appellant, Robert M. Fitzpatrick, was indicted for murder in the first degree, commenced, and the grand jury was organized, seventeenth of May, 1880.

On the twentieth of May the following entry appeal’s :

Now, on this day, comes the grand jury into open court, and having answered to their names, returned, through their foreman, eight bills of indictment, which, being numbered 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18, were ordered filed and process to issue immediately.”

Then follows, in the transcript, the indictment against Robert M. Fitzpatrick, charging, in substance, that on the tenth of February, 1880, in the county of Phillips, he murdered John Tool by shooting him with a pistol; which is endorsed 16, and marked filed twentieth of May, 1880.

’ When the accused is not in custody, it is not proper for ■the clerk to disclose upon the record that an indictment has been found against him by naming him in an entry ( Gantt’s Dig., secs. 1798,1800). The indictment in this case is sufficiently identified by its number and date of filing, as one of ■the eight shown, by the above entry, to have been returned into court the twentieth of May. Shropshire v. State, 12 Ark., 190; Green v. State, 19 Ib., 186.

II. Appellant was tried on plea of not guilty. The jury found him guilty of murder in the second degree, and fixed his punishment at fifteen years imprisonment in the peniten'tiary ; a new trial was refused, bill of exceptions taken, he was sentenced in accordance with the verdict, and prayed ■an appeal, which was allowed by one of the judges of "this court.

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd grounds of the motion for a new trial, were that the verdict was contrary to. law, contrary to evidence, and against both.

That John Tool was shot with a pistol on the night of the •tenth of February, 1880, between 10 and 11 o’clock, in the ■saloon of Mose Tinney, at Helena, during a mardi gras fete, and died soon after receiving the mortal wound, the evidence -leaves in no doubt.

There was also evidence to warrant the jury in finding that he was shot by appellant.

The saloon fronted east, the counter was on the right; "there was an entrance at the back, or west end of the house, as well as in front, and a beer garden in the rear. The front •entrance was screened.

A. King, witness for the State, testified, among other things, that he was sitting on a box in the saloon looking at Tool, about eight feet from him ; that Tool was sitting with his back to the shelving — squatting down with his left ■side towards the east end of the house and towards witness. That appellant came up to the east end of the counter (from the front entrance) in a stooping position and presented his pistol towards Tool, who, motioning his hands towards him, said, “don’t shoot, Bob” (appellant was familiarly known by the name of Bob), and about that time the pistol fired, and a second after Tool remarked, “Eve caught it,” or words to that effect. . He was a bar-tender.

Further on, the same witness said appellant fired as soon as he got to the east end of the counter ; and that was the time Tool motioned him not to shoot, and that was the shot-that killed Tool. Again, witness said he saw appellant’s-face when he shot, and he knew he killed Tool.

Tom Robinson testified that he knew the parties ; was in the saloon, near the ice-box, when Tool was killed, and knew appellant killed him.

D. C. Reed, a policeman, testified that on the night of the-difficulty, he, the city marshal, and others, had appellant in custody, and he made a statement in his presence ; said he killed Tool, and did not know what he did it for. It appears-that the others did not hear this statement.

The doctors proved that the pistol ball entered the left-side of Tool and ranged down.

There were but three persous [appellant, his brother, Thomas Fitzpatrick and Frank Tujague], who used fire arms in the fight, and Tool must have been killed by one of them. It could not have been Thomas Fitzpatrick, for he used a double barrel shot gun, charged with small shot, and Tool was killed with a pistol ball. Tujague entered the saloon at the west end, and fired his pistol toward the east.

T. D. Ramage, who was present, but did not see who shot Tool, testified that if he was sitting from four to six feet from the east end of the counter, between the counter and shelving, with his face to the south, and shot in the left side, it was not possible for Tujague to have killed him. He was a witness for defense.

Alonzo Fitzpatrick, brother of and witness for appellant (who was present, and armed, but did not engage in the fight), testified that if Tool was sitting in the position as described by other witnesses, it was not possible for him to have been shot by Tujague, from the west, etc.

No doubt, from the evidence, Tool’s left side was to the east, and appellant, who was manifestly in a rage, fired his pistol repeatedly and wildly, from the east towards the west.

The above feature of the evidence is stated in response to a suggestion of counsel for appellant, that it was not satisfactorily proved that he shot Tool. The jury found, by their verdict, that he did, and there was evidence to sustain the finding.

As to the grade of homicide, the evidence was conflicting. If the jury believed the witnesses for the State (and none of them were impeached), they properly found appellant guilty of murder. On the version given of the whole quarrel and' fight between the Fitzpatricks and Tujague, (in which Tool was shot), by some of the witnesses for the ■defence, the jury might have found that the homicide was of a lower grade than murder. We will notice other features of the evidence not indicated above, in considering the instructions.

III. After the evidence was closed, the court read to the jury certain sections of the Digest relating to the grades of homicide, self defense, etc., which are referred to in the bill of exceptions ; and then gave twelve [misnumbered fourteen] instructions, moved by the attorney for the State, appellant objecting to each and all of them.

For appellant sixteen instructions were moved, the court •refused the 9th, modified'the 6th and 10th, and gave all of the others as asked.

The evidence as set out in the bill of exceptions is long and confused. A brief statement of leading facts, however, will-be sufficient to make remarks upon the instructions-understood.

It was a festival occasion; the parties and eye witnesses'were at a saloon, and probably all drinking. The Fitzpatricks commenced the quarrel. About 10 o’clock at night,. Tujague, who was in costume, and at the back door of the-saloon, attempted to detain a woman who wanted to leave ; and Thomas Fitzpatrick, hearing the altercation between him and the woman, came up and struck .him.

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

Related

Pendergrass v. New York Life Ins. Co.
181 F.2d 136 (Eighth Circuit, 1950)
McClendon v. State
126 S.W.2d 928 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1939)
Arnold v. State
20 S.W.2d 189 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1929)
Nagel v. State
17 S.W.2d 317 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1929)
Weldon v. State
270 S.W. 968 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1925)
Patterson v. State
215 S.W. 629 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1919)
Striplin v. State
139 S.W. 1128 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1911)
Bishop v. State
84 S.W. 707 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1905)
Carpenter v. State
36 S.W. 900 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1896)
Sturdivant v. State
27 S.W. 6 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1894)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
37 Ark. 238, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fitzpatrick-v-state-ark-1881.