Lockridge v. State

172 So. 2d 192, 252 Miss. 185, 1965 Miss. LEXIS 1089
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 22, 1965
DocketNo. 43345
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 172 So. 2d 192 (Lockridge 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
Lockridge v. State, 172 So. 2d 192, 252 Miss. 185, 1965 Miss. LEXIS 1089 (Mich. 1965).

Opinion

Jones, J.

The appellant was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Circuit Court of Lee County, Mississippi, from which judgment he appeals. We affirm the decision of the lower court.

The errors assigned are:

(1) That the evidence was insufficient to sustain the verdict and that the court overruled the motion for a directed verdict of not guilty by the appellant.

(2) That the court erred in not declaring a mistrial when one of the officers referred to the knife with which deceased was stabbed as “the murder weapon.”

(3) The court erred in refusing defendant’s instruction number 2 as follows: ‘ ‘ The court instructs the jury for the defendant that intent is a necessary element of the crime charged in the indictment, and unless you believe from the evidence that the State has proved beyond every reasonable doubt that the defendant intended and did take the life of Ozell Hall with malice aforethought, then it is your sworn duty to find the defendant not guilty.”

(4) That the evidence was not sufficient to sustain a verdict of murder and that at most the jury could only find the defendant guilty of manslaughter.

The facts as shown by the evidence and found by the jury were: The defendant had the idea for some reason that the deceased, Ozell Hall, had been to appellant’s [188]*188home with appellant’s wife. The killing occurred on Saturday night, May 16, 1964. Early that morning about three o’clock Hall and his wife were awakened by someone at the door. According to the dead man’s wife, appellant had a piece of iron in his hand and threatened Hall and was fussing at him about visiting appellant’s wife. There was a scuffle and as a result thereof Hall pushed the appellant off the front porch, knocking off the banister. As the appellant was departing, he said “I’ll get you, Mann — I’ll get you if you get out on Saturday.” Hall stated, “I’ll get out on Saturday,” to which appellant replied, “Well, I will, I’ll get you.”

That night about eight o’clock Hall and his four year old daughter left home for the purpose of carrying a fish to Willie Booker. The fish had been left with Hall for Booker by their boss.

There were several people at the home of Sallie Mae Dickerson and Rosie Lee Dickerson, which was the house to which Hall and his daug’hter went to carry the fish for Willie Booker. The fish was carried into the kitchen and various ones were in and out of the kitchen looking at the fish. The fight resulting in the death of Hall occurred in the kitchen. At the time there was no one present except the appellant, Hall, and Hall’s four year old daughter. The daug’hter, of course, did not testify. Sallie Mae Dickerson ran to the kitchen when someone said they were fighting, but when she reached there, the wounds had been inflicted. She asked appellant, “Ernest Lee, did you down that boy from the back?” And the appellant replied, “You know how a fellow feels when he comes into your house like I done and found him in there with my wife.” She then ordered him out of the house; he threw the knife across the table and left. The knife was a butcher knife. No one saw the man Hall at any time with any weapon of any sort. Hall was taken to a hospital and examined by Dr. Love. He expired while x-rays were being’ taken.

[189]*189Dr. Love gave as the cause of death the internal hemorrhaging caused by two knife wounds, one in front in the V formed by the ribs, and the other in the back. The investigating officers finally arrested appellant. On the way to the police station the officer testified that the appellant freely and voluntarily and without any promises of reward and without any duress, replied when the officer asked him why he cut Hall, that he wanted to hurt him, and the officer answered that he had done a good job; then the appellant stated, “I did not want to kill him; I just wanted to hurt him real bad.” The doctor who examined Hall at the hospital, testified that in his opinion the wounds were separate and constituted two different stabbings.

Appellant was the only eye witness to the killing. He swore that on Friday night before the killing he came home about nine or ten o’clock and saw the deceased get off the bed and start going to the door. The defendant said, “I run around to the back door and he run out.” He said he went after him, but couldn’t catch him. Appellant returned to his house and his wife was gone. She had left the baby there and appellant carried it to his mother’s house. Then he says he went to Hall’s house, knocked on the door, and told him, “Ozell, I want to speak to you,” and Hall said, “O.K.,” and the appellant said, “I went in and I told him ‘I don’t think anything of a man that makes like he is your friend here, and then when you are off working, goes up to your house and stays with your wife.’ ” Ozell answered that he didn’t go up there with his wife and appellant then said Ozell pushed him off the porch. He testified there was a fuss in progress in the house and he, appellant, said, “You’d better not let me catch you over at my house anymore with my wife.” He then went home and to bed, got up next morning and went to work. Appellant further stated that when he first saw Hall at his, appellant’s, home, he, Hall, was getting out of bed and [190]*190putting on his clothes, and said his, appellant’s wife, was in bed with him. He denied saying that he was going to kill him.

He swore that on Saturday night he was looking for Willie Booker and Willie was not at his home, so he guessed he was over at his girl’s home. His girl was Honey Dickerson. About the time he got there Hall was there. He says they all went in. Appellant went on through the house to the kitchen and testified as follows, “that Hall told me ‘I want to speak to you a minute.’ I said, ‘Yea.’ And then he says to me, ‘What in the — do you mean by letting my wife in on what I did? You had no business mentioning it to her or anything about that around my wife.’ And I said, ‘Well, you hadn’t got no business messing around with my wife, either. ’ And then Hall cursed my wife, and I said ‘No use talking like that to me. You just stay away from my wife because I don’t like you being around her and you better not come back over there.’ And then he says, ‘Well, now if you want to fight, come on outside.’ And with that he comes out with a knife and he hits me on the hand, and then he went to scuffling and I got aholt of him and he broke loose and went out the door.” Appellant then stated that he stabbed Hall only once and that Hall then broke and ran, and appellant threw the knife down and went home. He bases his plea on self defensei He claims Hall was trying to kill him, and he was trying to keep from being killed.

On cross-examination he swore he and Hall were just talking. That he, Hall, was mad and he, appellant, was too. He denied any insinuation that he was looking for Hall on Saturday night, but says he was looking for Booker. Hall had his four year old daughter with him, and appellant says he doesn’t mean to tell the jury that Hall was looking for him, appellant, at that time. He denied telling the officers that he wanted to hurt Hall. He testified that he and Hall began scrambling after [191]*191Hall cut him on the hand, and we quote a portion of his cross-examination.

“Q. You had both of his arms and holding them with your hands, is that right?

“A. Yes, sir.

‘ ‘ Q. All right now, that is the way you had him, and he had a knife in his hand.

“Q.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
172 So. 2d 192, 252 Miss. 185, 1965 Miss. LEXIS 1089, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lockridge-v-state-miss-1965.