Ghent v. State

176 S.W. 568, 76 Tex. Crim. 523, 1915 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 443
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas·Decided April 21, 1915·No. No. 3516.·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinions

Appellant was convicted of manslaughter and his punishment assessed at two years confinement in the State penitentiary. *Page 525

The killing took place in Kaufman County, but the case was tried in Ellis County on a change of venue. The killing took place near what is known as Peele Town, in Kaufman County. W.T. and Jack Nash had owned a farm near this place. During the year 1912 the tenants on this farm received what is called "White Cap Notices?" and left. At the request of the Messrs. Nash the sheriff of the county went down to investigate the matter, and getting information that led him to believe that a son of B.J. Jernigan (the deceased) was mixed up in the matter, he called to see Mr. Jernigan, and says: "I went down there to investigate, and I found out to my satisfaction that it was some of the boys there in the neighborhood that had done this, yet I was not in a position to prove it in court. I went into the field to where Mr. Jernigan was at work and talked to him about it. I told him that he had property there and that the interest of the community was his interest and he should help me eliminate that situation there, and his boys, if they got tangled up in the meshes of the law, it would be hard for them to get out. He asked me who it was, and I told him I did not care to tell him; that I was not in a position to put anybody in court about it, and I told him I just wanted that situation eliminated. He asked me whether his boy had anything to do with it, and I told him that I could not answer his question whether his boy had anything to do with it; that if I began to answer his questions he would finally ask me one that I could not answer, and he talked somewhat irritated because I would not answer his question. He did not seem to be in a very good humor when I left him." Later W.T. and Jack Nash sold the land to some parties in Ellis County, and they placed E.K. Atwood (one of the owners) in charge thereof, and he had charge during the year 1913, and at the time the killing took place in January, 1914. Mr. Atwood testified that in December, 1913, he had some negro tenants on the place and they were being molested and were being threatened, receiving white cap notices to leave the farm, and some did leave. He, Atwood, applied to W.T. and Jack Nash to aid him in getting a man to go to the farm and look after the matter. They recommended appellant and he was employed. W.T. Nash testifies in regard to the matter as follows:

"I know the defendant, H.C. Ghent; have known him fifteen years, ten or fifteen. I remember the circumstances of a report of whitecapping and trouble down on the Atwood farm. I had owned that farm previous to that time, me and my family, and had sold it to Mr. Atwood and these other gentlemen. I had a conversation with Mr. Atwood in regard to employing someone to go down there on the part of Mr. Atwood and protect the negroes and look after the white-capping; the first conversation we had was with my brother, Jack Nash. My brother and me had a conversation with Mr. Ghent in regard to the matter; he asked him first if he would go, and he said he did not know, and he wanted to know what it would pay him. We told him it would pay him something more than he was getting; he said he was getting, I believe, $40 a month. We told him we thought these people would *Page 526 be willing to pay him possibly $75 a month, and we discussed whether he would go or not. He said if he could agree with them satisfactorily and pleasantly he would go; we told him, of course, that it was a pretty bad thing, that the year before that they had posted some notices on one of the cabins, and that I had to go down there and take the sheriff with me, and the sheriff went around in the community and talked to different people, and I said to some of the people at the store down there in a little crowd that had accumulated, that I was running that place, had always run it, and treated them right, and anything I had they could get, and that I wanted to be neighborly, that I paid the big end of the taxes for that school; in fact, mentioned, `You have the best country school in the county; this place largely supports it, and I want to get along with you people.' I told him they had posted these notices the year before, and I told him that I was going to protect the place if I had to go down there and sleep and stay there all the time; that it was a pretty bad community and there were some bad men down there and that it was a pretty hard job; that the year before I taken the sheriff down there. In the conversation I mentioned the fact about going to see Mr. Jernigan. After my brother, Mr. Ghent and I talked that night Mr. Atwood came to Kaufman, and we had Mr. Ghent in the barn and I went and got Mr. Crane and brought him down there. Mr. Crane was at that time sheriff of Kaufman County, he had been sheriff for eight or ten years. My brother, Mr. Atwood, Mr. Ghent, Mr. Crane and myself were all present at the conversation in the barn. We got Mr. Crane for the purpose of advising with Mr. Ghent; we told him that as sheriff of the county we wanted to consult with him in connection with employing Mr. Ghent to go down there and protect this property, and mentioned, of course, that he knew about this white-capping, and Mr. Crane said, `Yes, I haven't been able to get anybody to handle the situation down there,' and we asked him what he thought about getting Ghent to go down there, and he said he thought he was the very man to handle it. He asked Mr. Ghent did he have a gun, and he said he wished he had a saddle-gun for him, said, `I wish I had my saddle-gun to let you have,' and Ghent said that he had a gun; and we asked Mr. Crane to deputize him, and Mr. Crane said that he could not do that, that he had all of the deputies that the law allowed him but for him to go ahead and go armed, and he said that a man that would post white-cap notices and explode dynamite would shoot you in the back, and he said, `You watch him now,' and he said, `There are some bad ones down there'; and we said, `Can't you give him some authority?' and he said, `Well, now, of course, I cannot deputize him, but I will take care of him about the guns,' and with that understanding he went down there and accepted this employment, and once or twice during that time while he was employed he came back and consulted Mr. Crane and consulted with us. I don't remember whether it was in that conversation or the other one we discussed with Mr. Ghent that we had gone down there and talked to Mr. Jernigan. Just before this employment of Mr. Ghent there had been a report to us about the white-capping *Page 527 and dynamiting of the place; Mr. Atwood called us up, and then we heard it, too. I do not think Mr. Crane went into details about the conversation he had with Jernigan at the time Mr. Crane and me went down to see Jernigan; he just mentioned to Mr. Ghent that he had some trouble there the year before — that he went in the field and talked to Mr. Jernigan and he became very enraged; he told him that he was sheriff of the county and expected to enforce the law, and that he was down there with Mr. Nash — that is the conversation that he related — that Mr. Nash wanted to be neighborly and get along with those people, without any trouble, that he didn't want any trouble, and that if it was not cut out, if it happened again, he would have to arrest his boy. My recollection is that in that conversation Mr. Crane just said, `and he is a bad one,' — used an expression of that kind, `He is a bad one'; I think Mr. Crane used that expression."

Jack Nash and E.K. Atwood testify in substance the same thing. The sheriff denies telling appellant that B.J.

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Ghent v. State, 176 S.W. 568, 76 Tex. Crim. 523, 1915 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 443 (Tex. 1915).

176 S.W. 568 (Ghent v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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