Gay v. State

125 S.W. 896, 58 Tex. Crim. 472, 1909 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 525
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas·Decided December 15, 1909·No. No. 21.·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

DAVIDSON, Presiding Judge.

Appellant was convicted of murder in the second degree, his punishment being assessed at five years confinement in the penitentiary.

The evidence in brief discloses that Floyd sold to appellant an improved tract of land. On this land were two houses, one occupied by Floyd and the other by Wood Hooker, a tenant of Floyd. At the time of the execution of the deed from Floyd to appellant there was a verbal contract with reference to the time of the delivery of possession of the property and was part of the consideration for the sale and purchase. To avoid this delay appellant made a trade with Floyd in which, for certain inducements, he obtained an earlier delivery of possession of one of the houses. Appellant desired to occupy the house from which Floyd was moving, Hooker was to remain in the other house, which was some 150 or 200 yards distant across a little creek or branch. Flojrd reserved certain crops out of the trade, which were not included in the purchase of the land, over which Hooker had control, as Floyd’s agent or tenant. Appellant agreed to all this and Hooker remained in the house and in charge of said crops. Perhaps the record is a little confused in regard to Hooker, and it may be well enough to state that Hooker bought these crops from Floyd and was to remain in possession until the crops were gathered, and occupy that particular house he was then occupying until the contract with Floyd was carried out. Later Hooker desired to substitute deceased, Del Gossett, in his contract with Floyd. Del Gossett was, under that proposition, to take the place of Hooker in regard to the entire obligation. Floyd testifies in this respect as follows: “I made it agreeable with Wood Hooker to stay in the house where he was. I told Wood Hooker T would make it agreeable for him to stay in the house down there. He consented to that. Dr. Gay moved in there knowing that Wood Hooker was down there and consenting that Wood Hooker could occupy the house out there until the crop was gathered. That wag the *475 trade of possession between me and Gay. Wood Hooker afterwards sold that crop to Del Gossett. He told me that he did. Hooker wrote to me and told me that he sold the crop afterwards to Del Gossett. I made a trip up there to see Gossett or Hooker about my crop. I think it was somewhere about the middle or the latter part of August that I went up there. Del Gocsett’s family and Hooker and Taylor’s family were there living in the house when I left there. ... I accepted Del Gossett as the payee of the obligation that Hooker owed me. I accepted him in the place of Hooker for the payment of the crop.” This witness further testified that when appellant moved in he knew Wood Hooker was in the house, and consented that Wood Hooker should occupy the house until the crops were gathered. As before stated, Del Gossett was in possession of the house by virtue of a trade with Wood Hooker, which trade and obligation was indorsed by Floyd, who accepted Gossett in lieu of Wood Hooker in the trade with reference to the crop and premises which had been reserved by Floyd with appellant’s consent. On the'morning of the difficulty, which ended in such a tragic manner, appellant was sick, or, at least, complaining, and requested his wife to go over to the house where Gossett was and demand possession of it by the following Monday. Mrs. Gay went and delivered the message as requested by her husband. In regard to this particular matter Mrs. Gay testified as follows: “I went over there to Mr. Gossett’s that day to ask him if he wouldn’t move, and he got mad right straight because I asked him. I did not go over there for any trouble at all. I have nearly forgotten what I said to him and what he said to me. The reason that I went over there was because the doctor asked me if I wouldn’t go. The doctor was sick. He asked me to go over there for the purpose of asking Del if he wouldn’t move so we could have the house. When I got there I asked him if he wouldn’t move, and that we wanted the house by Monday evening. Arthur Gossett was also there. He said that he did not want to move, and that there was not any law that could put him out. There was some further conversation between him and me. He asked me if I come over there to take the doctor’s place, and I told him when the doctor was sick I tried to attend to his business the best I could. I believe I have forgotten what they said then. When he said that, there was some other conversation, but I forget what it was. He jumped out of the house and asked me if I was going to take Gay’s place, and my husband called me, and they turned their attention to him, and one of them said, “Let’s get our guns,” and they both run back in the house, and were rumling around there a few minutes, and come out holding their hands back of their pants like they had pistols, and I hollered to my husband, and told him they were going to kill him, and they both followed me, and they were cursing him. Del (deceased) got to a mulberry tree about twenty-five or thirty yards, and maybe further. He was still cursing my husband when he got to the tree; he just stood there and cursed him. He called him a God-dam-short-bastard-son-of- *476 a-bitch. By that time I was right at my husband.” Without narrating further the details of this immediate transaction, it was at or about this juncture appellant shot and killed Gossett, some of the shot entering the mulberry tree at which deceased was standing. Arthur Gossett, brother of deceased, who was with him at the time, tells the stóry this way: “Mjr brother was living there on that place at that time, and he left there and went over on the railroad to get a job working on the railroad, and he didn’t have any team to move with, and he got a job and he come after me to go and move him, and I had a yoke of steers, and I taken my wagon to go and move him; and before we got to Dr. Gay’s house, there was a road that turned off to go to Mr. Tobe Shaddick’s, and he (Del) said, ‘We will leave our wagon here, and go up to the house and cook dinner, and while you are packing up the things I will go over to Mr. Shaddick’s and get some hogs that I have there,’ and I said ‘alright,’ and as we went up to the house we met a darkey, Brooks, by name, I believe, and Dr. Gay’s little boy, and my brother asked the darkey was Mr. Shaddick at home,, and he said, ‘Yes, sir.’ ” Without going further into the details of this matter, the deceased and his brother Arthur went into the house and were cooking dinner when Mrs. Gay, wife of appellant, came upon the scene. He says when Mrs. Gay came she said, “Oh, Del,” and then he, witness, told his brother that Mrs. Gay was calling him; that she said, “Good-morning, Del,” and he said, “Good-morning;” that thereupon she said, “I came to tell you that you are going to have to move,” and he said, “I am going to do that now,” and she said, “You will have to get out by Monday morning.” That his brother said, “That is my business here now,” and she said, “If you don’t get out you will get in trouble;” that his brother, deceased, said, “Who is attending to the doctor’s business?” and Mrs. Gay said, “I am when he is not able,” and asked deceased how he got in through the gates; that his brother told her they were standing wide open, and she said, “That is some of Jim Taylor’s work;” that deceased said he did not know about that; that about that time they, witness and deceased, heard Dr.

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Gay v. State, 125 S.W. 896, 58 Tex. Crim. 472, 1909 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 525 (Tex. 1909).

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