Register v. State

112 So. 2d 523, 237 Miss. 14, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 444
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJune 8, 1959
DocketNo. 41168
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 112 So. 2d 523 (Register 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
Register v. State, 112 So. 2d 523, 237 Miss. 14, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 444 (Mich. 1959).

Opinion

Roberds, P. J.

Register was indicted for and convicted of the crime of burglary of a dwelling house with the intention to steal personal property contained therein. On this appeal he contends (1) that the indictment was fatally [16]*16defective in that it did not aver the name of the owner of the personal property which Register intended to steal and take away, and (2) that the verdict of the jury was against the great weight of the testimony and (3) that the court committed fatal error in admitting two confessions made by Register.

On the first contention the indictment charged burglary with the intent to steal. It did not charge larceny of any of the personal property located within the dwelling. In such case it is not necessary that the indictment shall specify the owner of the property intended to be stolen. It is sufficient to charge a burglarious breaking and entering for the purpose of stealing therein. Brown v. State, 72 Miss. 992, 18 So. 431; Fournier v. State, 96 Miss. 417, 39 So. 302; James v. State, 77 Miss. 370, 26 So. 329; 9 Am. Jur., Burglary, Sec. 52.

On the question of the weight of the evidence the testimony offered by the State may be summarized in this manner:

The house burglarized was the property of Mrs. Georgia McCollum. Mrs. McCollum and Miss June Flowers (now Mrs. Leslie) were sleeping in separate rooms in said building. Miss Flowers was attacked by some man. He undertook to choke her to death by winding around her neck a pillow case. He also hit her in the head with a hammer. Her wounds were very severe and she was in the hospital several days. The party also stole from her purse in the room $10 in money. Her screams caused him to run from the house. Mrs. McCollum was awakened by these screams and she saw the intruder as he ran from the dwelling. Both of these witnesses hesitated to say positively that Register was the attacker but both of them did describe certain physical aspects, such as black curly hair, protruding chin, and his profile — all of which physical personal characteristics corresponded with characteristics and profile of Register. They also [17]*17identified a shirt which was being- worn by the attacker and which was introduced in evidence. Photographs of Register were introduced in evidence and the jury had the right to conclude from the testimony of these two ladies that the man who attacked Miss Flowers was Register himself.

It was further shown in the evidence that the officers gathered from the sheets on the bed on which Miss Flowers was attacked human hair. These hairs along with hair from the body of Register were sent to Dr. Nelson E. Grubbs of Mobile, Alabama. Dr. Grubbs was a toxicologist with much experience in the matter of scientific investigation of evidence in criminal cases. The officers also carried to him the two pillow cases and bedsheets and the bedspread which were on the bed when the crime was committed. They also sent to him a shirt which the officers had taken from the room occupied by Register and which he admitted was his shirt. Dr. Grubbs, after a very thorough scientific investigation, concluded that the hairs on the sheets were very similar to those on the body of Register. He also carefully examined certain metallic particles which were lodged in the fabric of the shirt. The day before the crime was committed, Register had worked at a manufacturing’ plant called Thicol Chemical Corporation. He was using a wire brush cleaning the metal and paint from the metal sashes of an office building of said corporation. The brush was composed of wire and in its use there was embodied in it and blown onto the shirt then being worn by Register certain metal particles and metallic paint. This shirt was also sent to Dr. Grubbs. Dr. Grubbs, although stating that no two hairs of the human body were exactly alike and that the scientific investigation of such hairs would not be conclusive, said: “I found the hair from the bed and the hair of the head labeled Register to be similar in all respects.” He also stated positively that the metallic particles which-were embedded into Regis[18]*18ter’s shirt were exactly the same as the particles which had been scraped by Register from the building of Thicol Chemical Corporation at which Register was at work the day before this crime was committed.

In addition to the foregoing, it was shown by the State that Register gave two written confessions. In these two confessions he not only admitted he committed the crime but he detailed how it was accomplished and his excuse for so doing according to the written confessions, was that he regretted that he had been guilty of the commission of the crime.

It appears from the evidence that Register had been convicted of numerous crimes in various parts of the United States. Some of these were felonies. He had paid many fines and on a number of occasions had served in penal institutions. He himself estimated he had been convicted some forty or fifty times.

His defense in this case was an alibi. He contended that on the night of the crime he had spent that night in an automobile with three other persons on or near the beach adjoining the Gulf of Mexico in Mississippi. He introduced some witnesses who undertook to testify to that fact. We will deal with the testimony.

Mr. Harry D. Hammond testified that he lived a short distance from Mrs. McCollum; that the hammer used in striking Miss Flowers in the head belonged to him; that it was in his garage.

Mrs. Dana Farragut, placed on the stand by Register, was a nurse at the Jackson County Hospital on April 17,1957, the night Miss Flowers was carried to the hospital. She said Miss Flowers was placed in the emergency room and that she, the witness, talked to Miss Flowers about the attack. Mrs. Farragut testified that Miss Flowers told her that some man was trying to choke her to death with a pillow case and that she thought it was a man of light color and of the negro race. Mrs. Farragut said that Mrs. McCollum and Mrs. Vice, a [19]*19nurse, were present when Miss Flowers made the foregoing statement.

Mrs. Frances E. Harris testified that she lived on Front Street in the City of Pascagoula, Mississippi; that she knows Mr. Register and that on the night of the attack Register was at her cabin until between 11:30 and 12 o’clock. He left and she does not know where he went. Register was related to her by marriage.

Mrs. Lucille Poole Cook testified that she worked at a coffee shop in Pascagoula and that she is the daughter of Mrs. Harris. Her testimony would have justified a conclusion that at the time this crime was committed Register was at another place. However, it developed that she had given a written statement which in this material respect contradicted her testimony upon the stand. She said that when she gave that written statement she was nervous and mixed up; that she had had more time to think and that the statement she gave was incorrect. She admitted that she had signed it and admitted that the officers did not threaten or induce her to sign it. She was uncertain as to whether the night she had in mind was Wednesday night or Friday night.

Merley M. Herndon said he was with Miss Cook and Mrs. Harris and Register. The jury might have concluded from his testimony that Register was not present at the McCollum home when the crime was committed, but he, too, had signed a written statement which contradicted the other testimony he gave upon the stand to the effect that Register was at some place other than the McCollum home at the time the crime was committed.

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Related

Newburn v. State
205 So. 2d 260 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1967)
Bullis v. State
426 P.2d 423 (Nevada Supreme Court, 1967)

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Bluebook (online)
112 So. 2d 523, 237 Miss. 14, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 444, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/register-v-state-miss-1959.