Moore v. State

237 So. 2d 844
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 2, 1970
Docket45875
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 237 So. 2d 844 (Moore 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
Moore v. State, 237 So. 2d 844 (Mich. 1970).

Opinion

237 So.2d 844 (1970)

Billy F. MOORE, Jr.
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 45875.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

July 2, 1970.

*845 James G. McIntyre, Jackson, for appellant.

A.F. Summer, Atty. Gen., by Velia Ann Mayer, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

GILLESPIE, Presiding Justice.

Upon conviction in the Circuit Court of Tunica County for the March 1, 1969, murder of Mrs. Zylene O. Mitchell, this appeal is prosecuted by Billy F. Moore, Jr. (hereinafter defendant). We affirm.

The following chronology summarizes the testimony bearing upon the events surrounding the death of Mrs. Mitchell and the arrest of defendant. A statement of the facts relative to the issue of insanity is included in the latter portion of this opinion. During the afternoon of February 28, 1969, defendant joined several male acquaintances for a drink as they proceeded to a nearby hunting lodge in order to light the heaters therein. That evening, defendant and his wife attended a birthday supper party being given in honor of a friend at the home of the Vance Moores. Having arrived with a drink in his hand, defendant was observed by those at the party to have imbibed two or three drinks before leaving shortly after midnight.

About 2:45 in the morning of March 1, 1969, Henry Lee received a telephone call from Mrs. Mitchell whom he had known approximately twelve years. Thereupon Lee left his home and went to his office at the Gulf Bulk Distribution Plant (hereinafter Bulk Plant) where he remained for nearly thirty minutes during which time two telephone calls were made: one to Mrs. Mitchell with whom he had a brief conversation and the other to Mrs. Gloria Bennett who was asked to check on Mrs. Mitchell. When Mrs. Bennett called about three o'clock, Mrs. Mitchell asserted that she was "all right" and then the telephone was abruptly hung up. After departing from the Bulk Plant between 3:30 a.m. and 3:45 a.m., Lee was driving north along Highway 61 when signaled to stop by defendant who was driving a southbound vehicle in which Mrs. Mitchell was seated. As defendant, with whom he had previously altercated concerning a plot of land, cursed him and began to get out of his vehicle, Lee drove away. Looking back, Lee observed the rear wheels of defendant's vehicle become stuck in a ditch while the car was being turned around to facilitate pursuit by defendant. Bedford Love, the night marshal of Tunica, noticed defendant and an unidentified person along Highway 61 just south of town as they sat in a vehicle, the rear wheels of which were stuck in a ditch. Defendant consented to Love's offer to summon assistance. John R. Smith, Jr., an attendant at a nearby service station, saw an unknown black-headed woman wearing a red housecoat in the car of defendant which required the use of a wrecker in order for him to extricate it from the ditch.

Shortly after 8:00 a.m., defendant appeared at the Bulk Plant and informed J.Z. McCain of his desire to see Henry Lee whose sister Margaret Harrell thereupon told defendant that Lee was talking on the telephone. Mrs. Harrell walked into Lee's office, shut the door and fastened the night latch. When Lee had terminated the telephone conversation, he directed his sister to notify the sheriff and then he departed through the rear door. Leaving the building, Lee overheard defendant order *846 McCain to admit him into Lee's office since "I've killed that woman and I want to get in there to kill Henry." McCain refused, and defendant fired thirteen pistol shots into Lee's office door. Soon thereafter Tunica County Sheriff Joe Carsley arrived in response to a request to investigate a possible law violation at the Bulk Plant. Upon parking about fifteen to twenty yards from the main office, Carsley and Highway Patrolmen A.D. Gatewood and H.B. Grisham advanced to a point within twelve feet of the office when defendant emerged from the door with a carbine and told them not to come any closer and to take their hands from their pockets. Defendant, having worked with the three men, recognized them as law enforcement officials even though they were attired in street clothes and without any weapons open to view. When Sheriff Carsley inquired as to what the trouble was, defendant replied, "Joe, I've messed up." Once inside the Bulk Plant office, the sheriff found the bullet-riddled door locked, and he received no response to his call for Lee. During this time defendant had returned to his car and as Sheriff Carsley neared, defendant declared, "I've killed that son of a bitch that belonged to Henry Lee." Knowing the reference was to Mrs. Mitchell, the sheriff said, "Billy, you're bound to be joking." Defendant replied, "Come on, I'll show you." Having agreed to allow Patrolman Gatewood to drive his car while Sheriff Carsley sat on the back seat, defendant, a M-2 rifle across his knee and a .357 magnum in his hand, gave directions to Gatewood. Patrolman Grisham followed in the patrol car so as to maintain radio communications.

During the seven or eight mile ride, defendant requested, "Don't push me. I've got two more stops to make, and then I will give myself up." The two officers refused defendant's offer of a drink but defendant himself took two or three drinks of straight whisky. Defendant explained, "I've got the truth out of [Mrs. Mitchell]. She told me the truth. She did write the letters to [Highway Patrol Headquarters requesting my transfer from the Tunica area], and made the telephone call under * * * threats from Henry Lee." Defendant next stated that he forced Mrs. Mitchell out of his car at the Lula Hunting Club, located near where he and his companions had driven on the previous afternoon, and shot her with the M-2 rifle. Also during the drive to the death scene, defendant handed two hand guns to Sheriff Carsley and stated that one belonged to Mrs. Mitchell from whom he had taken it; he refused to relinquish the .357 magnum.

Defendant was the first person to spot the body to which, after the vehicle was brought to a stop, all of them walked. Mrs. Mitchell, clothed in a red housecoat and lying on the ground of the levee, was dead with a bullet wound in the head. Defendant then unloaded the .357 magnum which he had been holding and surrendered it to Sheriff Carsley of whom he queried, "I'm under arrest, I guess." Agreeing, Sheriff Carsley told defendant that he had been involved in law enforcement work for a sufficient length of time to know what the charge would be. Defendant next relinquished a large pocket knife to Patrolman Grisham to whom he stated, "I was going to cut [Mrs. Mitchell's] throat and make Henry Lee watch her die, and then I was going to kill him." After Patrolman Gatewood was handed the M-2 rifle which Sheriff Carsley determined to have been recently fired, a .30-caliber cartridge was discovered within six feet of Mrs. Mitchell's body. Defendant consented to be taken to jail in Clarksdale where he arrived about 10:00 a.m. Having partaken of several more drinks of whisky, defendant was observed at this time to be "in pretty bad shape as far as drinking" was concerned; thereafter defendant went to sleep. In the meantime, the county coroner, who had carried the body to the funeral home, concluded that Mrs. Mitchell had been dead for approximately three hours and that there were no marks of violence upon her body other than from the bullet which had entered her neck from *847 the rear, traveled through her spinal cord and exited at her right jaw. A criminologist from the State Crime Laboratory microscopically ascertained that the cartridge found near Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
237 So. 2d 844, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moore-v-state-miss-1970.