State v. Johnny

29 Nev. 203
Nevada Supreme Court·Decided October 15, 1906·No. No. 1695·Published·Cited by 25 cases

Opinion

[211] By the Court,

Noroross, J.:

The defendants, on the 27th day of December, 1905, killed a human being, designated in the indictment as Fred Foreman, at Montello, in the County of Elko, by cutting and stabbing him with knives. They were thereafter jointly indicted by the grand jury of Elko County for the crime of murder, jointly tried upon such indictment, and both convicted of murder in the first degree. Thereafter, on the 23d day of March, 1906, judgment of death was pronounced upon them. They appeal to this court from the judgment, and from an order, denying their motion for a new trial.

Both upon the trial and upon this appeal, the defendants have been each represented by special counsel, and each relies upon one or more assignments of error based upon exceptions in which the other did not join. For this reason, the ease must be treated as if there were two separate appeals. Most points, however, are common to both, and will require to be noticed but once. The evidence in this case shows that the man killed by the defendants was one of the world’s unfortunates, who was traveling, friendless and alone, across the state. He had but one leg, and walked with a crutch. Upon the night of the murder he was sleeping in an enclosure made of railroad ties, in the center of which was a fire. This inclosure was entered by the defendants, according to their own testimony, some time during the night, probably about midnight. At the trial the defendants made no attempt to disclaim responsibility for the killing, but, upon the contrary, admitted it in their own testimony. The defendant, Ibapah, who is a Goshute Indian, detailed with considerable particularity the manner in which the murder was accomplished. According to his testimony, the defendant, Johnny, and himself had been drinking quite frequently of Jamaica ginger during the day, and had also secured a pint flask of whisky, which they consumed. Some time during the night they observed the light caused by the fire in the tie house. They went to the inelosure and climbed down in it, finding the man, whom they afterwards killed, lying down on some ties. They first sat down upon a tie, [212] and then asked the man to go and get them some whisky. Johnny gave him half a dollar, and the man said, "I can’t go up there; I got one leg.” What happened next the witness said he did not remember because he was too drunk. He then testified that the man put the money in his pocket, and Johnny asked him to give it back. He did not know whether he gave the money back, but Johnny said to him, Ibapah, "Let’s go and kill that man. I hold both hands and you cut throat.” Ibapah said, "All right.” Johnny then gave Ibapah his knife, and held the man’s hands crossways by the wrists. Ibapah then went and got the man by his coat. The man tried to raise up, and Ibapah put his knee on his breast, holding his knife in his right hand. Johnny then said, ".Go ahead and cut him.” He held the coat with his left hand and with the right hand he put the knife against his throat, and Johnny says, "Cut him hard.” Then he killed him. After they had killed him Johnny looked in the man’s pockets. Johnny then cut off the man’s shoe, saying, "There •is money in shoe sometimes.” Then they both said, "Let’s put him on top of fire.” Johnny said, "Let’s put on lots of ties and'burn him up.” They put the body on the fire, and put ties on it also. They then left; Ibapah taking with him the dead man’s overcoat, and went to the camp of Johnny’s father. Upon arriving there Johnny asked for something to eat, and Ibapah told that they had killed a man. The testimony of Johnny, who is a Shoshone Indian, varies from that of Ibapah, in that he testified he did not know much about what happened; that he was too drunk po remember. He testified that he remembered holding the murdered man’s hands, and helping to place him on the fire, but further than that he had no recollection of the occurrence whatever. The condition in which the body of the deceased was found the morning following the murder is described by one of the witnesses for the state as follows: " The throat had been cut from ear to ear. The left eye had been stabbed out. There was a deep wound in the left cheek. The right arm had been broken so that the bone protruded through the clothing. There were bruises on the body. The clothing had been almost torn off the body. Blood stains [213] were visible all around, and a pool of blood was in the south corner of the little tie house in which the body lay. The body had been thrown on a coal fire, and was burning at the time. The imprint of a bloody hand, clearly defined, was visible on the ties lying just west of the tie house. Several ties had been thrown into this tie house near the fire, and one or two ties onto the fire. I saw two knives; one lying on the pile of ties where the imprint of the hand was outside, and the other in the tie house between the man’s leg and a tie. The man’s shoe was near his foot. It had been cut from the top to the sole. There were bloody stains on and in the shoe. The pockets of the cóat and trousers had been turned inside out. Part of the clothing was burned, and the pqckets had been torn away and thrown into the fire and on the ground in the tie house.”

It would seem from the record that there was some manifestation upon the part of each of the defendants to seek to gain some advantage at the expense of the other, although both relied upon drunkenness in mitigation of • the offense. According to their testimony, they had consumed during the day several bottles of Jamaica ginger, which contained,, according to the testimony, about seventy per cent of alcohol; and *a pint flask of whisky. Charles Brown, a witness on behalf of the defendants, testified that he saw them at Montello the afternoon and evening preceding the murder. He saw them first about 2. o’clock, when they seemed to be under the influence of liquor, drunk enough to be boisterous. Pie saw them again between 4 and 5 o’clock, coming in front of a saloon, and they were talking quite loud, and were drunk; He, in company with a man named Bichard Cromley, saw them again that night between 11 and 12 o’clock. They were quite drunk then, trying to help each other along. They were talking very loud and boisterous.

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State v. Johnny, 29 Nev. 203 (Neb. 1906).

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