State v. Whitchurch

96 S.W.2d 30, 339 Mo. 116, 1936 Mo. LEXIS 636
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 30, 1936
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 96 S.W.2d 30 (State v. Whitchurch) 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. Whitchurch, 96 S.W.2d 30, 339 Mo. 116, 1936 Mo. LEXIS 636 (Mo. 1936).

Opinion

LEEDY, J.

Upon 'a trial in the Circuit Court of Washington County -appellant was- found guilty Of murder in the second degree, in having- Shot and killed One Arthur Lewis, and sentenced to a term *119 of twenty-five years in tbe State, penitentiary. After an unsuccessful motion for a new- trial, sbe bas duly appealed.

On and for some months prior to August 2, 19§4, tbe date of the alleged homicide, appellant was engaged in business at Potosi as tbe operator of a restaurant. Sbe was about forty years of age, and deceased, Arthur Lewis, was about twenty years old. Shortly after noon on tbe day in question, she left her restaurant, in company with Arthur .Lewis, and- they drove to DeSoto in appellant’s brand new Chevrolet coupe. - At the time of their departure, appellant kissed her seventeen year old daughter, who ■ admonished her mother “to be back by dark,” to which appellant replied, “I said good-bye.”

At DeSoto appellant and Lewis called at the home of the latter’s sister, Mrs: Eva Jackson, who testified that appellant “Didn’t have very much to say, only she didn’t seem to, be in no hurry about getting back; he said he had a date that night. . , . She (ap.~ pellant) asked him (Lewis) if Boy was going to take him, and he said, ‘I don’t know. I may go in that car’ and she said ‘not in that car. You will never go to see any girl in that, car.’ ” • She further testified that her brother said “he- couldn’t work since she (appellant) had that good-looking girl in the restaurant,” to which appellant replied, “ ‘You don’t need to mend your Gotten breeches that girl won’t never bother you, ’ ’ ’ The witness further testified, ‘ ‘ She seemed to be nervous. She kept raising up her dress. She had a large handkerchief in her hand and every once in .a while she would raise and pull up her dress and put her hand under her arm. ’ ’

The tragedy occurred in the afternoon at a point about three miles north of Potosi in what is referred to -throughout the, record as. “an old field” adjacent to the “old DeSoto road,” known also as “detour 21.” Bunnihg across and over the “old. field’’for some distance was- a byroad- or lane. Near its junction- with the old DeSoto road, the lane had two prongs or forks about-thirty feet, apart, both of which were used for public travel. - Phil Jarvis, a delivery b.oy for a Potosi grocer, was first to arrive, at the scene of the tragedy after it had occurred. He was making a delivery of groceries to. the home of one Fowler, who lived nearby. He was driving a car, and left the old DeSoto road on the north prong of the byroad referred to, and went' across the old field to the Fowler home. He testified he saw no car on the byroad as he went to the Fowler, home. About five or ten minutes later, returning by the same route,- .he met appellant near her ear which was in the byroad in the- old-field, and some fifteen dr twenty feet -from the old DeSoto road. • Jar-vis testified that appellant there told him that “two fellows-shot Mr. Lewis;” that “two fellows got on the car fender and made-them drive off into that old field.” At that time witness ■ observed blood on her left arm. He saw deceased “laying there on the left side, df the car door twelve *120 or fifteen feet from tbe car.” Appellant requested the witness to get a doctor and the sheriff. “She wanted me to help her ; . . She said one of the boys killed Mr. Lewis.” Jarvis went immediately to Potosi, reported the affair ¿ and returned with others, when and where appellant made the same statement as to the manner in which Lewis met his death to numerous persons.

Betuming to the restaurant about six o’clock that evening, appellant fainted. - She was seen to have blood on her left arm near the elbow, which was washed off by one of her employees. There was also blood on her- dress. She stated at that time that “somebody shot Art.” One of those present at that time testified, “She grabbed me around the neck and said ‘Arthur got shot.’ She said ‘two men jumped on the car and one of them shot, him.’ ” Her testimony at the coroner’s inquest, held the same night, was to the same effect. Before the inquest she had driven out in the country some fifteen miles to the residence of deceased’s mother, to whom she made substantially the same statement, amplifying it somewhat so as to include a meager description of her-son’s alleged assailants, one of whom she said was a large man and the other a smaller man, and both “poorly dressed.’’

Lewis had been employed by appellant while she lived on a -farm near Potosi, and had worked in her restaurant, but was not employed by her at the time of the shooting. There was evidence tending to show that appellant in May and June, 1934, made the statement four or five times that “If he (Art) didn’t do her any- good he would never do anybody else any good,” and that'she loved him. Further that she had made inquiries to ascertain whether “he loved any other girl.” One witness testified to a conversation with appellant in May, 1934, in which-she'referred->to the time she lived on- the farm, and said: ■ “'She offered him (Lewis) her. farm- and - everything on it if he would stay there all-winter.” Another testified to a .conversation three or four weeks before the shooting, when Lewis was planning on going to Wyoming, and appellant- asked witness to try to persuade Lewis not to go, and told the witness she would do anything to keep Lewis there. ■

The coroner and other medical witnesses testified to. the nature and location of the wounds found upon the body of deceased. ■ There was a bullet wound in the -right side of the chest about the tenth rib. It went approximately straight through the body and' came out on the left side, a little downward. There was another bullet hole in- his right arm, through the axilla, into the chest, and across to the left shoulder. The bullets entered the body from the right side. Around the lower opening and on the arm was quite an area of powder burns. Either of the wounds would have produced death. There was also opinion evidence to the effect that the muzzle of. the gun was withiu *121 two to six inches-of the body of deceased when the fatal’shots .wére fired, and that he -was in a sitting posture. ■ : • . ■

- Appellant was the only eyewitness to -the shooting. 'She took the stand in-her own behalf, and stated her version of the affair, in substance, as follows-:’■ That in’’ returning from DeSoto, she land Lewis had driven some distance into the old field referred to, when’they turned around and returned" to. á large tree, where they, stopped the car.-.-The day was hót, and she opened the car door on her side. - She put'her feet outside, • and leaned bach against the side of the car and over against Lewis.. A discussion followed-with reference to his borrowing her-car that night,-and appellant refused to-let him have it unless her daughter,- Evelyn, accompanied'-him. About ■ that time Phil Jarvis was seén traveling in a car on-the lame.or byroad headed in the direction of the- Fowler place, and a controversy arose between Lewis and appellant-over Phil- Jarvis; in-which Lewis became angry. Appellant testified that’, suddenly and without warning,- Lewis started the .car, causing the open door thereof to strike her on the-foot: or ankle with considerable force; that Lewis then struck her -on the back and shoulder and tried to knock, her out of the-car; -that she said, “Art, what is the matter with you:?”-: To which.Lewis made no reply.

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Bluebook (online)
96 S.W.2d 30, 339 Mo. 116, 1936 Mo. LEXIS 636, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-whitchurch-mo-1936.