Forman v. State

70 So. 2d 848, 220 Miss. 276, 56 Adv. S. 17, 1954 Miss. LEXIS 436
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 8, 1954
DocketNo. 38892
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 70 So. 2d 848 (Forman 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
Forman v. State, 70 So. 2d 848, 220 Miss. 276, 56 Adv. S. 17, 1954 Miss. LEXIS 436 (Mich. 1954).

Opinion

Hall, J.

This case is a companion to that of Luther Carlyle Wheeler v. State, 63 So. 2d 517, Mississippi Advance Sheets No. 24, p. 49, March 21, 1953, not yet reported in the bound volume of Mississippi Reports, Certiorari Denied October 19, 1953, 98 L. Ed. Advance Reports p. 56, Rehearing Denied November 30, 1953, 98 L. Ed. Advance Reports p. 154. After the trial and conviction of Wheeler, appellant was granted a change of venue to another district and the trial judge in that district sustained her motion to quash the indictment against her. Thereafter she was indicted at the November 1952 term of the Circuit Court of Forrest County and did not ask [281]*281for a change of venue for trial on the second indictment. She was convicted and the jury fixed her punishment at life imprisonment in the state penitentiary, from.which she appeals. .

For brevity we refer to the opinion in thé Wheeler case for a statement of the facts upon which his'conviction was affirmed.’ Since the original indictment returned against appellant at the May 1952 term was quashed, the grounds to quash which were discussed in the Wheeler case have no application here, and, since appellant made no request for a change of venue after her second indictment, what was said in the Whfeeler case with reference to a change of venue has no application here.

1. Appellant’s principal contention for reversal is that under the proof she was entitled to a peremptory instruction because the proof failed to show that she consciously committed or caused to he committed one single element necessary to justify a conviction of the crime of murder. We do not agree with that contention, and we point out some of the proof offered by the State to connect appellant with the crime, as well as some of the admissions by appellant in her own testimony. She met Wheeler in Jacksonville, Florida, about three weeks before policeman Everett was killed on March 9, 1952. They traveled to Mobile, Alabama, in a Chevrolet automobile, and at that place they traded it for the 1941 model maroon colored Buick which was being driven by appellant at the time of the killing. They paid a cash difference in this trade. They went to New Orleans, Louisiana, and then to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, arriving in the afternoon of the day of the killing. They attended a picture show, ate at a restaurant, and drove about the city. After the shooting that night appellant came hack into the main business section of the city and parked the car and mingled with the crowd which had gathered at the city hall and she was in the crowd when Wheeler was [282]*282brought in. She was apparently interested in finding out whether Wheeler had been apprehended. Then she got back in the ear and drove up Highway 49 for several miles. On this trip she threw from the car numerous articles belonging to Wheeler, among them being some of his clothes bearing his name, and also a bag of tools which the jury was warranted in believing were useful in committing burglary. She turned off the main highway and drove into a secluded place on a side road and there spent the night in the car. The next morning she removed the tag from the car and threw it away. Then she walked back to the city limits of Hattiesburg and caught a bus into town. She then went to Sears, Roebuck & Company’s store where she purchased some hose and went to the ladies rest room and got rid of a pistol which she had with her by putting it in the waste basket. She later went to the Milner Hotel and obtained a room where she remained until the following day when she had an employee of the hotel send a taxicab driver to her room. She engaged him to carry her to New Orleans. He testified that the regular taxi fare to New Orleans was $35.00 but that she offered him $150.00 to carry her. She testified that she offered him only $100.00. Knowing that she fitted the description of a woman who was said to have been driving the maroon Buick on the night of the killing, he notified the police and started on the journey to New Orleans. A road block was set up and the taxicab was stopped and appellant apprehended near the city limits of Hattiesburg. She said that she wanted to go to New Orleans to employ a lawyer for Wheeler, further manifesting her interest in him.

After her apprehension she made a statement, which the proof shows was free and voluntary, in which she said that after attending the picture show and eating, she and Wheeler drove around town and spotted the Ace Weathers Motor Company. Wheeler went in taking the bag of tools with him, and she parked- the car nearby and [283]*283waited for him. He was gone longer than she had expected and she became nervous over the situation. Finally Wheeler came and got in the car and told her that he had to leave because the owner of the place had come in, and that a police ear had just arrived. They drove away and took a devious route to the scene of the killing where they were overtaken by the police car. Appellant did all the driving. According to this statement, when she stopped and the police car stopped, one of the policemen came to the right side of the car and Wheeler said “What’s the matter, officer?” and then “before the officer could answer, or before he did answer, I saw a flash, it looked like a cigarette lighter, the officer was standing there, and then he wasn’t standing there, Carl jumped out of the car, slammed the door, and I threw the car in gear and pulled off at a rapid rate of speed.” It is undisputed that the pistol carried by the deceased, EVerett, was fully loaded and had not been fired when he was found lying in the street. In this statement, in response to a question as to why she drove away, she said that Wheeler had told her “not one time, but time after time, ‘if anything ever happens to drive, and drive like hell’ that ‘I have done all the time in the penitentiary I am ever going to do, I will never be taken alive.’ ” She also said that Wheeler had given her the pistol and had taught her how to load it and to shoot it. After making the foregoing statements she got in a car with the officers and they drove around Hattiesburg and she pointed out to them the Ace Weathers Motor Company as the place which Wheeler had entered.

Appellant testified in her own behalf and made a rather weak issue on the question as to whether her statement had been freely and voluntarily made. She did not deny that Wheeler had told her to drive and drive like hell if anything ever happens and that he had done all the time in the penitentiary that he was ever going to do and that he Avould never be taken alive. She did testify that when she stopped the car at the scene of the killing Wheeler [284]*284said Should I get the gun ? ’ ’ and that she said, ‘ ‘ Oh, my G-od, no, if-they want us for anything we will go.”

As to the guilt of Wheeler, the State offered substantially the same evidence as that which was given in his trial and which is set out in the report of his case.

We are of the opinion that the jury was justified in. finding, as it evidently did find, that Wheeler and appellant entered into a conspiracy to commit the crime of burglary, and that, since both were armed with pistols and Wheeler had told her that he would never be taken alive,, this ■ conspiracy extended to and covered the common purpose to resist arrest with great violence and to kill any person who interfered with or- attempted to apprehend them. This being true, appellant was just as guilty of murder as was Wheeler even though she did not fire the fatal shot.

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Bluebook (online)
70 So. 2d 848, 220 Miss. 276, 56 Adv. S. 17, 1954 Miss. LEXIS 436, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/forman-v-state-miss-1954.