State v. Mabry

22 S.W.2d 639, 324 Mo. 239, 1929 Mo. LEXIS 532
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 11, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 22 S.W.2d 639 (State v. Mabry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Mabry, 22 S.W.2d 639, 324 Mo. 239, 1929 Mo. LEXIS 532 (Mo. 1929).

Opinion

*244 WHITE, J.

The appeal is from a sentence of death imposed upon the defendant after conviction of murder in the first degree.

One Alfred Lamm, a resident of Sedalia, February 4, 1928, just after he had finished his supper, heard a shot and almost immediately William Busch staggered into his house, saying that he was shot; that somebody had tried to stick him up, and he ran. Two physicians examined Busch, and found that he was shot in the hip from the rear, the bullet passing through his body and coming out near the median line in front. He was taken to the hospital and died February 10th, following.

Defendant Lawrence Mabry, in company with one Ellis Collins, went to Kansas City the following morning, and later went to Warrensburg and was there arrested, charged with the murder of Busch. While in the custody of the Sheriff of Johnson County, February 16, 1928, the defendant signed a written confession, in •which he stated that in Sedalia he and Ellis Collins, about six-thirty, started out to hold up somebodju They saw “this guy.” They told him to stick ’em up and he refused, and Mabry shot him. Collins did not have a gun. Mabry did not know that he had hit him until he saw “it” in the papers the next morning. Then he and Collins went to Kansas City, came to Warrensburg, and were arrested.

The next day, February 17, 1928, while still in the custody of the sheriff, defendant made another written confession, in which he went more into detail concerning the murder. He said that he and Collins, on February 4, 1928, abouty six-thirty decided to hold up somebody. They hid in an alley to wait, and they saw *245 a man coming along. Defendant stepped out, pointed Ills revolver at him, and told him to hold up his hands, and the man then turned and ran past. He ran about forty or fifty feet when the defendant fired at him. Bight after the shot defendant turned and ran. Defendant did not see Collins any more until next morning. Before that he had seen an item in the papers about William Busch having been shot. The two, Sunday night, February 5th, decided they had better leave town. The statement then describes the way they traveled and the subsequent arrest.

The defendant objected to these confessions on the ground that they were not voluntary, but forced by the officers. The State put on the sheriff and other witnesses to prove that the statements were voluntary.

Bose Mary Burrowes, reporter for the Sedalia Democrat, testified that, after the statements signed by the defendant had been made, she heard a conversation between Mr. Bucker, the prosecutor, and the defendant, in which defendant said that he did not want to talk any more about the case; he had made a confession and told the sheriff everything.

Allen Scruton, advertising man for the Sedalia Democrat, testified that he heard Mr. Bucker say to the defendant, “You know who I am, don’t you?” Defendant answered, “Yes.” Then Judge Couey said, “We are going to ask you some questions, and anything you say will be used against you on the trial.” Defendant said he understood; that he had already made a statement to the Sheriff of Johnson County, and did not feel like going over the same thing already signed. Other witnesses testified to statements made by defendant to the effect that he had made his statement to the sheriff, and did not care to talk further.

The defense was an alibi. The defendant introduced a number of witnesses in the attempt to show that he was not at the place where Busch was shot at or about the hour when the shooting took place.

The State, in rebuttal, offered evidence of several witnesses to show that defendant had a bad reputation.

I. Error is assigned to the admission by the trial court of the confessions on the ground that the corpus delicti was not first proven so as to make them admissible. It may be noted that, when the confessions were offered in evidence, the defendant did not object on that ground, but objected only on the ground that the confessions were obtained by coercion and intimidation, and offered evidence to that effect.

*246 The evidence tending to show corpus delicti appears in the statement of Alfred Lamm and the physicians. Lamm heard a shot just after he had finished supper; he and his family were sitting at the table and discussing the shot when the front door opened and William Busch staggered in and said, “I am shot.” The witness asked, “What happened? Busch replied: “Somebody tried to stick me up and told me to stick ’em up and I ran.” The bullet entered the left hip below the crest of the hip behind the ileum, ranged upward and forward and came out about an inch and a half to the left and an inch below the navel. From the nature of the wound the deceased must have been shot by some one else. That he was shot by some one, who was intending to rob him, is shown by his statement immediately afterwards. That would constitute murder in the first degree. The perpetration or attempt to perpetrate a felony stands in lieu of deliberation and premeditation, and a homicide committed in that attempt is murder in the first degree. [State v. Bobbitt, 215 Mo. l. c. 33; State v. Garrett, 276 Mo. l. c. 313, and cases cited.] These decisions have been followed by other cases to that ’effect, so on that evidence the corpus delicti of murder in the first degree was fully made out.

II. It is claimed, however, by defendant that the evidence of Lamm as to the statement made by Busch on coming into his house waR not comPetent because hearsay. Busch staggered into his house in the excitement of the moment, apparently without knocking. From the time Lamm heard the shot until Busch made the statement was a matter of seconds. Lamm testified it was just time for his daughter to run down a flight of stairs. The statement of .Busch under the circumstances was res gestae and therefore admissible. A very similar condition was presented in the case of State v. Hart, 309 Mo. 77, l. c. 88, where several cases are cited. There can be no question as to the first part of the statement, “Mr. Lamm, I am shot.” It was an exclamation, undesigned, spontaneous, and rising immediately out of the condition in which the wounded man found himself. The following statement, “Somebody tried to stick me up and told me to stick ’em up and I ran,” while in the form of a narrative in answer to a question, is a part of the same statement, so immediately connected with, his exclamation that it comes within the rule laid down in the Hart case.

The interposition of the question by Mr. Lamm did not suggest a deliberate narrative of the cause of Busch’s injury. Lamm did not ask “How did you come to be shot?” or “What was the cause of the trouble?” or “Who was it shot you?” but “What happened?” Busch had come in with the exclamation, “I have been *247 shot.” Lamm, as if' not clearly understanding, asked “What happened?” It ivas the excitement in Busch’s mind induced by the fatal wound a few seconds before, which caused him without premeditation to say what in fact had happened. Somebody tried to hold him up, and shot him as he ran.

But even if that part of the statement is excluded and we consider only the exclamation, “Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
22 S.W.2d 639, 324 Mo. 239, 1929 Mo. LEXIS 532, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mabry-mo-1929.