Gentry v. State

136 S.W. 50
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 22, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 136 S.W. 50 (Gentry v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gentry v. State, 136 S.W. 50 (Tex. 1911).

Opinion

PRENDERGAST, J.

The appellant was convicted of unlawfully carrying a pistol in De Witt county on or about August 27, 1910, and his punishment fixed at 12 months confinement in the county jail.

The evidence in this case shows clearly that some time within a year prior to August 27, 1910, the appellant had a difficulty with a negro by the name of Laney Johnson, and that at that time Johnson pulled a gun on him; that on the evening of August 27, 1910, about 5 o’clock, Laney Johnson and a large number of other negroes, men and women, were in the back room and restaurant part, set apart for negroes, of a saloon in the town of Westoff, in De Witt county; and that the negroes were making considerable noise and some disturbance. The appellant at that time entered from the rear of this saloon, and went through that part of it [51]*51where the negroes were located. Passing through this part of the saloon, he went into the front part. Soon after the appellant entered the front part of the saloon, he said to one of the saloon proprietors: “You see that negro. We will have some fun with him in a few minutes.” The saloon keeper remonstrated with him, and told him not to start any racket in the saloon. He, the saloon keeper, then walked behind the bar for a few moments, and his attention was attracted to the appellant, who was slipping up behind the negro Johnson with an iron pipe, which was kept behind the bar to tap beer with. When he got up to the negro, he struck him back of his head. ' This stunned the negro, but, recovering, he turned and faced appellant. Drawing his knife from his pocket, he asked who struck him. The defendant then struck at him again, but the lick was warded- off by the negro. Another negro then grabbed the iron pipe, and jerked it away from appellant. Other ne-groes then took the negro Johnson out of the saloon through the back part. Just after this, the appellant’s father, who was constable of that precinct, came into the saloon. He and another then took hold of the appellant, trying to pacify him to prevent any further difficulty. At that time the appellant had in his hand a beer bottle raised. At this time the deputy sheriff, who had been phoned for, came into the saloon, and was then told by appellant’s father to arrest the said negro Johnson, who was then going away from the saloon, and had reached some distance therefrom. Without attempting to then find out what was the matter, he started off to arrest the negro Johnson, and soon overtook him, and while the negro at first showed some defiance, when he was told by the deputy sheriff of his official position, he readily assented to arrest, and the deputy sheriff started off with him to the calaboose to lock him up. In returning with the negro towards the calaboose he passed a short distance from where the appellant was then standing. Another witness was with the appellant at that time when the appellant said to him, “If they don’t lock him up, I will kill him,” meaning the negro Johnson. About the time the deputy sheriff reached the saloon, when appellant’s father and another were holding him, the appellant’s father told the deputy to go and arrest the negro Johnson, as he had left his pistol at home. After the deputy sheriff left them to arrest the negro, the appellant asked him where his pistol was,- when he stated that it was at home, and the father then told appellant to go and get his pistol for him. The appellant then started off towards his father’s house, but, instead of going there, he only went about half the distance to his father’s house, and procured from a man at a gin another pistol, and put it on and wore it all of the balance of that evening around in the saloon and at other places in the town of Westoff. When he returned with this pistol his father asked him whether he had gotten his pistol, and upon being told that he had not, but had another, he told appellant to keep the pistol, and that he, himself, would go home and get his after awhile and come back, and the father did that, being gone from 30 minutes to an hour before he returned.

After the assault and battery by the appellant upon the negro Johnson, another deputy sheriff, not the one who arrested Johnson, also appeared upon the scene, and told the negroes, if they did not behave themselves, he would lock some of them up in the calaboose. The testimony shows that at once thereafter the negroes became quiet, dispersed, and most of them, if not all of them, left to go some miles in the country to a dance to be held that night. There was no other trouble with the negroes or anybody else after the negro Johnson was arrested, and there was no occasion for the service of any officer thereabout, or in connection therewith, and no need of the summons of any other person, there being then on the ground, and for some time continuously thereafter, the said constable himself and two deputy sheriffs. Before the deputy sheriff who had arrested the negro Johnson reached the calaboose, bond was made for the negro, and he was discharged, and was not placed in the calaboose. When the appellant was returning from the gin with the pistol, he then had it on his person in the back part of his waistband. He shifted the pistol from the back part to the front part of the waistband of his pants, and then buttoned up his 'coat, and came up to one of the witnesses, tmd, when asked what he was going to do with the gun, he said: “I am going to shoot the top of that son of a bitch’s head off as sure as God made little apples.” This witness then went to appellant’s father, the constable, and told him that appellant had a gun, and that he had better take it off of him. The father’s reply was, "Has he got a gun?” It was then that the deputy sheriff was passing with the negro Johnson under arrest near the appellant when he announced that, if they did not lock the son of a bitch up, he would kill him. He repeated this several times.

About an hour after the arrest and discharge of the negro and the threat by the appellant, above stated, appellant was seen in one of the saloons in Westoff with the pistol on his person. He was standing about the bar and drinking some, and stayed around' about the saloon for perhaps as long as two hours after his assault upon the negro. All of this time there was no need of any officer for the purpose of preventing any disturbance because everything was then quiet, and there was no disturbance, as the negroes had been warned and dispersed, as above stated. One of the deputy sheriffs stated that the father of the appellant asked him to [52]*52watch the appellant. This was before the father went home and stayed some time, returning with his pistol. The deputy sheriffs, both of.them, stated that there was no disturbance whatever after the arrest of the negro Johnson and his discharge, and that there was no occasion for the service of any officer; that, if there had been, they would not have called upon appellant, because he was in no condition to be used as an- officer; that he was drinking and carousing around. Something like an hour after the assault By the appellant on the negro and the negroes had been gone about that length of time, when appellant was standing around in one of the saloons, he pushed his coat back and put his hand on his pistol which was in the waistband of his pants, and said to one of the witnesses, “This stands for something.” During the trial of t'he case, and after this witness had testified to this statement of the appellant that night while at a picture show with this witness and others, appellant said to the witness that he had told more than he had to tell. Witness replied that he had not, and that he (appellant) knew that he could have told more. Appellant then told him to keep his head closed.

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Related

Mangan v. State
324 S.W.2d 849 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1959)

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Bluebook (online)
136 S.W. 50, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gentry-v-state-texcrimapp-1911.