Millner v. State

162 S.W. 348, 72 Tex. Crim. 45, 1913 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 565
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 19, 1913
DocketNo. 2616.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 162 S.W. 348 (Millner 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
Millner v. State, 162 S.W. 348, 72 Tex. Crim. 45, 1913 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 565 (Tex. 1913).

Opinions

PRENDERGAST, Presiding Judge.

Appellant was indicted by the grand jury of Goliad County in two counts,—one alleging that Elie Pointer murdered George Gosnell and that appellant was an accomplice thereto. The other that Pointer murdered Gosnell and that appellant was an accessory thereto. Both counts were submitted to the jury for a finding and appellant was found guilty as an accomplice with a life sentence in the penitentiary imposed as his punishment.

As this ease will be reversed we will not discuss the evidence but will state it may have been sufficient to show: That the deceased’s business was to dig canals, build dams and do such like work; that he was a married man, living with his wife, and that they had two children, one a girl about nine years, the other a boy, about seven years, of age. Gosnell’s business and the location of his work required that he and his family live in tents near his work and that they did so at the time he was killed; that appellant was also a young man and married, but at the time of the killing and for some time prior thereto had been separated -from, and was not living with, his wife; that he was an ordinary laborer doing such work as Gosnell’s business called' for; that a few months before the killing Gosnell had had appellant hired as a hand *49 and appellant had worked for him, hoarding with Gosnell and his wife during such time; that for a few weeks just prior to the killing, and at the time thereof, appellant lived and worked and boarded some miles distant from where deceased and his wife and family were then living; that Elie Pointer was a young man, and at the time and for some time prior to the killing, worked for Gosnell and boarded with Gosnell and his wife, and that he and appellant were well acquainted with one another and were rather intimate with one another; that for some weeks, or perhaps, months, just before the killing, the appellant and GosnelPs wife became infatuated with one another and an illicit sexual intimacy existed between them whenever they could get the opportunity to indulge, and they were planning and scheming in various ways to get together as often as they could and thus indulge; that Gosnell was murdered late in the evening, or just about night, on Saturday, July 8, 1911, near his camp. The physical facts and the uncontradicted evidence show that he was shot with three balls in the back of the head behind the right ear and that his head was powder-burned from the shots. The physical facts and uncontradicted evidence further show that he was in his buggy at the time he was shot, and that the shooting and killing must have occurred at a semewhat secluded place not far from his tent, and that his body was taken in a buggy a circuitous route a distance of about a mile and a half into a bottom,—a secluded place, and thrown out from the buggy face downward. Either of the three shots in the back of the head were fatal. The buggy was tracked from where the shooting must have taken place by the blood running therefrom on the ground, this circuitous route of .about a mile and a half to where the body was thrown out. Blood was all over and all in his buggy when it was found; that shortly before the killing the appellant called upon Mr. Bailey, one of his friends, and asked him if he could keep a secret and that he wanted to talk with him. He thereupon told Bailey, in effect, that he and Mrs. Gosnell wanted to get her a divorce from Gosnell, and wanted to know how much of Gosnell’s property she could get, and that he was going to take Gosnell’s wife away from him, Gosnell; that Friday morning before the killing, Gosnell, the deceased, had said Pointer to take him from his camp to the nearest railroad station some six or eight miles therefrom, and that the deceased that morning took the train at that point and went some miles distant on business to another point on the railroad, and that he was absent the balance of Friday, Friday night and until Saturday evening, when he returned to the railroad station and found Pointer there with his, deceased’s, buggy and horse; that the appellant knew that the deceased would be away from his camp and wife Friday evening, that night, and not return thereto until Saturday, and that he, on Friday evening, went on the railroad to the same station where the deceased had taken the train, and got off at the train at that town, hired an automobile and, at his instance, was taken to a point in sight of and *50 very near the deceased’s tent, telling, when he hired the automobile, to take him to Gosnell’s camp, that he was going to Gosnell’s camp; that when he and the parties reached a point in sight of and not far from Gosnell’s camp, a woman (evidently Mrs. Gosnell) was seen in front of the tent and appellant and they waived at one another; that the appellant then told the parties not to take him nearer the camp, and that he then got out and they returned in the automobile; that he stayed with Mrs. -Gosnell that evening, that night and until some time the next morning, Saturday morning, indulging their illicit sexual relations. Knowing that the deceased would return to his camp some time Saturday, the appellant had said Pointer to take him, Saturday morning, to a point six or eight miles from this camp to said railroad station so that he would not be seen by deceased, and the deceased would not know that he had been to his camp and stayed with Mrs. Gosnell that night; that deceased reached the said town on the same train that the appellant boarded that day, Saturday, he getting on at a different point and different coach from where deceased got off, and getting on before the train stopped in such a way as to avoid the deceased seeing him. The deceased that evening found said Pointer at said railroad station with his, deceased’s, horse and buggy; that later in the evening said Pointer took deceased in the buggy back towards deceased’s tent; that while at this town and before they left, the deceased drank intoxicating liquors to some considerable quantity, and become somewhat intoxicated, if not drunk; that said Pointer, as stated above, when they reached a point near deceased’s camp, killed him and carried his body off and dumped it in the river bottom; that Mrs. Gosnell knew that Pointer had killed him immediately after he was killed; that she had one of their horses saddled and she took one of the children with her from there some mile, or such a matter, to a neighbor’s, and that Pointer followed with the other child, and that she there advised Pointer to leave, furnished him a horse to leave on, and he did so that night. She did not go to the body of her husband, nor attempt to find it. The neighbors and other friends, having been informed of the killing during the.night, went very early the next morning to hunt for the body and tracked it by the blood and buggy tracks, as stated above, from where the body was first shot and deceased killed to where the body was thrown out and sought to be hid; that appellant and Mrs. Gosnell had hired, or tried to hire, Pointer to kill the deceased Friday night and early Saturday morning, while they were together in their illicit relations; that upon Pointer leaving Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
162 S.W. 348, 72 Tex. Crim. 45, 1913 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 565, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/millner-v-state-texcrimapp-1913.