Williams v. State

520 S.W.2d 371, 1974 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 260
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedOctober 17, 1974
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 520 S.W.2d 371 (Williams v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. State, 520 S.W.2d 371, 1974 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 260 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

OPINION

OLIVER, Judge.

Three separate indictments charged the defendant Williams with the first degree murder of Ralph Daugherty, Ralph Daugherty, Jr., and Geneva Jones Daugherty, his father-in-law, brother-in-law, and mother-in-law, respectively. Tried upon the three indictments simultaneously by agreement, Williams was convicted of first degree murder in each case and received three consecutive 99-year penitentiary sentences. Through his two appointed attorneys he has duly perfected an appeal in the nature of a writ of error to this Court.

The ninth, tenth and eleventh Assignments of Error urge the defendant’s contention that the evidence is insufficient and preponderates against the verdicts. The evidence is wholly circumstantial. It was generally understood that Ralph Daugherty often carried a considerable amount of money, and it was shown that two days before the homicides he had 17 one hundred dollar bills and other smaller bills on his person. No money was found on his body or in the house, except about $200 found under a brick in the hearth.

Between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 5, 1972, the defendant drove up to the home of Alex Daugherty, father of the deceased Ralph Daugherty, who lived about a quarter of a mile from Ralph *373 Daugherty’s home, and asked if he knew where Ralph was and left upon receiving a negative reply. When Alex Daugherty first noticed the defendant’s car it was on the road about even with the driveway leading to Ralph Daugherty’s home; but he didn’t know whether the defendant was coming out of that driveway or just driving up the road. The elder Daugherty also testified that Ralph owned a .22 caliber pistol which he kept on a little table in the kitchen when it was not in his truck. Ralph and his wife and their son Ralph, Jr. were shot to death in their home. Ralph was lying in the kitchen and his wife and son in the dining room. The county medical examiner found that Ralph had been shot six times, his wife three times and the son five times, and was of opinion they died about 7:00 o’clock the same Sunday morning, and that the wounds were made by two guns of different caliber.

Four .38 caliber commercial wad-cutter bullets and five .22 caliber bullets removed from the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Daugherty and found in different parts of the house (none were removed from the son’s body) were examined by the Tennessee Bureau of Identification Firearms Examiner. He found that the .38 caliber bullets were all fired from the same gun, having rifling marks of a Smith & Wesson revolver; and that some of the .22 caliber bullets were of the same type as those in .22 caliber cartridges found in Ralph Daugherty’s truck. The defendant owned a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver and the day before these murders he was carrying it at his step-father’s house where he kept a box of factory made wad-cutter cartridges; and he had that box of ammunition in his hand at that time. Neither his gun nor Ralph Daugherty’s .22 revolver was ever seen after these homicides. During the course of the investigation immediately after authorities were notified of the tragedy, the county coroner said to the sheriff, “I don’t seem to find any gun that was used in this.” Hearing that remark, the defendant said, “Well, I don’t know anything about any guns and I don’t have any guns on me. If you don’t believe me, search me.” When the coroner turned and looked at him, the defendant said: “I’m sorry I flew off the handle.”

Arising early on Sunday morning March 5, 1972, as was his custom, the defendant left the house and returned about 9:30 and awakened his wife. They had planned to have Sunday dinner with her parents. Between 11:00 and 11:30 the defendant took his wife and child and drove to her parents’ home. While she was removing from the car items of food she had brought and the child’s toys, the defendant took the child and went ahead to the front door, which had been broken open. When he looked inside he turned and yelled to his wife not to come to the door. He returned to the car and they drove to neighbor Jim Jenkins’ house (where the defendant had never been before) and he asked Jenkins to call the sheriff and report that the Daugh-ertys had been killed. The telephone at the Daugherty house had been disconnected at the outside terminal box. He and Jenkins then drove their separate cars to the scene. He told an officer there that when he discovered the tragedy he tried to use the phone but it was dead.

The defendant had been working for Ernest Hamilton. On Saturday March 4, 1972 he told Hamilton he needed some money to buy groceries and Hamilton gave him $40 as an advance on his wages. The defendant left his .38 revolver at Hamilton’s house that day while they went to Maryville to buy electrical supplies.

About 9:00 a.m. on Sunday March 5, 1972 the defendant went to the home of Herman Lipps and gave his wife $275 in payment of a debt he owed Lipps, which Lipps had threatened to sue him for on the preceding Wednesday. The same Sunday morning between 7:00 and 8:00 o’clock the defendant bought $2.00 worth of gas at a filling station in Etowah and paid for it with a one hundred dollar bill. Between 8:00 and 8:30 the same morning the de *374 fendant paid Bill Sissom $305 for two cows he had bought from him the preceding Friday. He sold two cows at the Cleveland Livestock Auction for $329 the same day he bought the two cows from Sissom. The defendant bought a truck from the Harvey Motor Company of Madi-sonville on February 29, 1972 and gave a worthless check for $800 in payment; after being contacted twice about the check, the defendant went to the Motor Company office on March 11th and paid his account with six one hundred dollar bills and ten twenties. On Friday March 3, 1972 the defendant bought some property from Boyd McKinney and Ralph Daugherty, which they owned together and paid them $500 and was supposed to make a $1,000 payment on March 8, 1972.

The defendant did not testify. He called his stepfather, Ernest Hamilton and Harold Duggan as character witnesses, all of whom testified he had the reputation in the community of being a peaceable man. Duggan also testified that two or three days before the killings the defendant talked to him about buying some property from his father-in-law and said he was planning on putting some cattle on the property; that when he asked the defendant where he got “that kind of money to do that with,” the defendant replied “I made a cattle transaction a day or two ago,” and showed him his billfold and claimed to have M>out $3,000 in it.

The defendant’s wife testified that he arose early that fatal Sunday morning, as usual; that he awakened her about 9:30 and they sat around and drank coffee and she dressed herself and the baby and about 11:30 they left to go to her parents’ house for Sunday dinner; and that when they arrived there the defendant took the baby and went on to the house while she was getting some toys and other things out of the car, and then he came running back with the baby and told her something was wrong and to get in the car; and that they then drove to Jim Jenkins’ house. She said the defendant “has always been in debt and there is always somebody needing money” and that he was in serious financial trouble at the time. She said she left the Jenkins’ home long enough that morning to view the scene at her parents’ home. She asked the defendant where his gun was but he did not tell her.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
520 S.W.2d 371, 1974 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-state-tenncrimapp-1974.