Jones v. State

64 Ind. 473
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1878
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 64 Ind. 473 (Jones v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jones v. State, 64 Ind. 473 (Ind. 1878).

Opinion

Worden, J.

The appellant, Alonzo B. Jones, and Lee Jones, Milton P. Toliver, Thomas Toliver and Eli Lowry, were jointly indicted in the Orange Circuit Court, for the murder, in the first degree, of Thomas Moody, by shooting him with a gun.

Eli Lowry pleaded guilty to the indictment, and was sentenced to imprisonment in the state-prison for life. The other defendants pleaded not guilty, and, on their mo- • tion, a -change of venue was granted, to the county of Monroe.

In the Monroe Circuit Court the defendants elected to be tried separately, and the appellant was put upon his trial separately, before a jury, which resulted in his conviction and sentence to imprisonment for life in the state-prison.

Three errors are assigned, as follows:

1. The court erred in overruling the motion to quash the indictment •

[476]*4762. The court erred in overruling the defendant’s motion for a new trial; and,

3. The court erred in overruling the defendant’s motion in arrest of judgment.

In thebrief of counsel for the appellant no reason is pointed out for the quashing of the indictment, or for the arrest of judgment, and we see none. We therefore proceed to the consideration of the motion for a new trial.

It may be gathered from the evidence, that Alonzo B. Jones and Lee Jones were brothers, and sons-in-law of "William Toliver, and that Milton P. Toliver and Thomas Toliver were brothers to each other, and sons of William Toliver. It does not appear that Eli Lowry was related to either of the parties. William Toliver, having become a widower, married Polly Moody, a sister of Thomas Moody, the deceased. William Toliver having-died after his marriage with Polly Moody, much ill feeling seems to have arisen, on the part of his sons and sons-in-law, against the Moody family, and especially against Thomas Moody, apparently growing out of the settlement of his estate. At the time of the homicide Thomas Moody was living at the town of Orleans, and the Joneses and Tolivers were living at or near Mitchell, some five miles distant from Orleans. On the evening of March 2d, 1875, Thomas Moody, as he was about entering his gate at his residence in Orleans, was shot with a gun and wounded by some one from the outside, from which wounds he died the next day.

The evidence in the cause is set out in a voluminous rec-ox-d, contaixxing over fifteen hundx-ed pages of manuscript, from which it appears, beyond a x-easonable doubt, as we think, that the appellant, if he did not pex-petrate the homicide with his owxx hand, counselled, aided, and abetted in the perpetration thereof.

With this brief statement of the general features of the [477]*477case, we proceed to consider the grounds urged in the brief of counsel for the appellant for a reversal of the judgment. We may remark, however, before proceeding to consider these several grounds, that we can not reverse the judgment upon the evidence, which, as before intimated, makes out the case quite satisfactorily.

The other grounds may be conveniently divided into classes, as follows:

1. Such as relate to the admission of evidence objected to by the defendant;

2. Such as relate to the exclusion of evidence offered by the defendant; and,

3. Such as relate to the charges given and those refused.

It was proved by William Moody, a brother of the deceased, that, on the night of the 24th of June, 1871, when the Moody family, consisting of the witness, Thomas Moody, now deceased, Polly Toliver, and one or two other members of the family, lived elsewhere than at Orleans, the house was broken into by persons from the outside, and sundry explosive and inflammable missiles were thrown into the house, which exploded therein, scattering their destructive contents, such as buckshot, nails and pieces of ii'on, about the house, ixxjuring the inmates and doing much damage by bux’ning axxd otheiwise. In this raid Thomas Moody, now deceased, was severely injured by some of the missiles, or by a gun or pistol shot. The ■evidence was received on the statement of the prosecutor, that he would afterward give evidence connecting the de■fexxdaixt with the transaction, which was done. The fanxily afterward moved to Oxleans.

The witness was then asked by the counsel for the State the following questions:

“ I will ask you, when you lived at Orleans, what condition you lived in, as to going out, or keeping your house barred up? ”

[478]*478Objection by the defendant overruled, and exception.

The witness answered : ‘'When we first went there we lived at McDonald’s ; we rented a portion of that house, slept up stairs and fastened the doors up, and when we moved down where we live now we fastened all the doors, and generally stayed in after dark. The deceased generally “ came in about dark, and ” the witness did “ not remember of any occasion when ” the deceased “ was out after dark, excepting the night he was shot, and on occasions when he was away on business, and was gone from home all night.”

We can by no means say that the evidence thus objected to was inadmissible. Motive is generally an important element to be considered in cases of alleged murder, especially where the identity of the supposed murderer is controverted and required to be established.

The supposed motive of the appellant in making the raid upon the house of the Moodys in 1871, and in afterward taking the life of Thomas Moody, was his malice and ill-will engendered by the settlement of the affairs of the estate of William Toliver ; and it might be supposed that if such was the motive that prompted the murder, it would have been much sooner accomplished. But the careful and guarded manner in which Thomas Moody lived at Orleans may sei’ve to explain why no safe opportunity was sooner presented for taking his life, and, therefore, why the murder, prompted by such motive, was not sooner perpetrated. In this aspect of the case, we think the evidence was competent, and we need not consider whether there was any other ground on which it was admissible.

The State proved by Zachariah Burton, that, after the death of Thomas Moody, the appellant spoke to the witness about a compromise with the Moodys. He wanted the witness to tell the Moody family, in substance, that he wanted them to pay him $5,000, and the widow Toliver to deed back the land she had got from the estate, and pay rent [479]*479from the time she had it; and if they did not do so he would make it cost them $10,000. If they did, they might move back uninterrupted by any one. The appellant asked the witness if he did not wish to live in a civil community, and the witness replying in the. affirmative, the appellant said it would not be, and that the poisoning of Bob Hall’s horses was nothing to what it would be. A similar statement was made by the appellant to Isam Hall, and proved by him. This evidence was objected to by the appellant, but we think it was properly admitted, as tending to show such malice and ill will on the part of the appellant toward the Moodys, growing out of the affairs of the estate of William Toliver, as might have prompted the commission of the murder.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
64 Ind. 473, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-state-ind-1878.