State v. McCaskill

142 N.W. 445, 160 Iowa 554, 1913 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 79
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJuly 1, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 142 N.W. 445 (State v. McCaskill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. McCaskill, 142 N.W. 445, 160 Iowa 554, 1913 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 79 (iowa 1913).

Opinion

Withrow, J.

1. Criminal: murder: evidence. I. The deceased, Henry Phillips, was killed by the defendant, McCaskill, in the kitchen of his own ■ home, on his farm in Blackhawk county, Iowa, on the 22d day of November, 1911. The deceased was, at the time of his death, sixty-three years of age, about five feet ten or eleven inches tall and weighed between one hundred and eighty and two hundred pounds. He was a large, muscular man, in perfect physical condition, so far as the appearance of his body would indicate. The defendant was about thirty years old, a native of the state of Texas, and was employed in the business of delivering sewing-machines to farmers through the country. He was about five feet seven or eight inches in height, weighed about one hundred and forty-five pounds, and, as he stated, had been in bad health with stomach trouble for about five years.

Upon the day of the death of Mr. Phillips, and for some time prior thereto, the defendant had been engaged in making deliveries of sewing machines, for which written orders had been previously taken by other employees of their common employer, and his headquarters had been at Jesup, about seven miles east of Henry Phillips’ farm. On the day in question the/ defendant had started in the morning with his team and wagon and two machines for delivery to purchasers, one to the deceased, Mr. Phillips, and one to some other person. In addition to the machine on his wagon, he carried a small leather satchel containing some sewing machine tools, some cloth for use in demonstration and instruction of the machine, and a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson Special revolver. He had [556]*556carried this satchel with this equipment in it for some time, and, as he explained, carried the revolver because he frequently had large sums of money in his possession, and often was compelled to drive at night as well as in the daytime, and always alone.

The Phillips home stood something like one hundred and fifty feet south of the highway which ran east and west. It was reached from the highway by driving, through a gate in the highway fence into the barnyard and up to a gate which opened from the house lot proper into the barnyard,, divided by a fence running north and south from the highway fence. The house fronted east on the barnyard, and was set back from the north and south fence a few feet.

McCaskill arrived at the home of Mr. Phillips about 9 :30 in the morning. Both Mr. and Mrs. Phillips were absent, and only the two younger children, Susie, fourteen years of age, and Henry, fifteen years of age, were there at that time. He told Susie that he was there with a machine for her father, and proposed bringing it into the house, which he did. The contract for the sale of the machine required the taking in of the old machine as a part of the price of the new machine. The old machine was then taken out and put on McCaskill’s wagon by him, and the new one taken into the house. Susie telephoned her father, and informed defendant that her father had said he would be home about noon. The defendant said for her to tell her father he would be back about one o’clock, and then proceeded to instruct Susie in the use of the machine. He then left the house, driving away with the old Phillips machine on the wagon.

He returned to the Phillips house about one o’clock in the afternoon. He drove his team in at the gate at the highway and up to the hitching post, which stood north from the gate from the house lot into the barnyard, and hitched the team, which, as it stood at the hitching post, was headed south and slightly to the west. The defendant walked through the gate to the kitchen door, was invited in by Susie, and informed [557]*557that her father ivas in the front room. The defendant walked through the kitchen into the room where Mr. Phillips was sitting in his chair near the stove. The defendant wore his heavy fur overcoat, and carried the satchel containing the sewing machine tools and the revolver. He set the grip down, walked over to Mr. Phillips, introduced himself as McCaskill, shook hands, and stepped back to pull off his overcoat, saying that he had delivered the sewing machine in the forenoon, and had instructed his daughter Susie how to use it. Defendant testified that the deceased immediately applied to him vile epithets, criticised him for having put the machine into the house without his permission, and said that he would make him take out the new machine, and bring back the old machine. At the same time, as defendant claims, Phillips picked up, from under the stove, an iron fire poker, which he raised and started towards the defendant, motioning with the poker in a threatening manner, and threatening that he would kill the defendant or make him put the old machine back into the house.

The defendant had removed his overcoat, and as the deceased started toward him with the poker he picked up the little grip, ran for a few steps, went back through the door from the dining room into the kitchen, out the kitchen door and east down the walk, through the gate to his team, with the defendant following him, during all of that time threatening him. The defendant went past the heads of the horses to the east, turned to his left as he passed the head of the near horse, walked along by the team and along the spring wagon until he got to the old machine. Defendant testified he reached for the screw plate, which held the machine on the wagon, to loosen the machine, but that the deceased kept coming toward him, and calling him names, threatening him with the poker, and defendant said to the deceased, “There is your machine, take it,” and that the deceased then called to Henry tó come and get it. The deceased himself did not stop, and the defendant continued up on» the west side of [558]*558the wagon to the heads of the horses, with the defendant still following, at which point the defendant got the grip open, pulled out his revolver, and stepping past the head of the horses again, and to the southeast, he presented the gun toward the deceased, and told him to stop. The deceased did stop. The defendant asked that Phillips permit him to get his things out of the house, to which the deceased said, ‘ ‘ Come on and get your things.” Mr. Phillips then turned, walking back to the kitchen door, followed by the defendant about two feet behind, and as they walked back toward the kitchen door the defendant said to the deceased: “You roll my machine out of the house, put my overcoat out of the door, and I will take your machine off the wagon, and set it up there, and cancel your order.” To which, as defendant, claims, the deceased replied: “If you want your things, come in and get them. I didn’t put them in there, and if you want them, come on, and get them yourself. I am a man of my word, and I ain’t going to touch you.” They proceeded until the kitchen door was reached, and the deceased stepped in in advance of the defendant, and put his hand on the doorknob, the door standing open, and turned, facing the defendant saying, “Come in.” The deceased turned his body as though starting to enter the dining room, and the defendant stepped up onto the kitchen floor, when the deceased, as defendant claims, moved and struck the defendant with the iron poker two or three times, SO' that the defendant was knocked to the floor. The defendant says he had been carrying his pistol in his right hand, with his left hand on one of the jaws of the little satchel, and the revolver held in his right hand shoved down into the grip. "When he was knocked to the floor, he was dazed and blinded by the blows, and, believing his life in danger, by feeling of the legs of Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
142 N.W. 445, 160 Iowa 554, 1913 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 79, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mccaskill-iowa-1913.