Anderson v. State

Decision Date06 May 1963
Docket NumberNo. 42596,42596
Citation246 Miss. 821,152 So.2d 702
PartiesWillie J. ANDERSON v. STATE of Mississippi.
CourtMississippi Supreme Court

Norman B. Gillis, Jr., J. Gordon Roach, McComb, for appellant.

Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen., by G. Garland Lyell, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

ARRINGTON, Justice.

Appellant was indicted in the Circuit Court of Pike County for the murder of Harry Billings, and was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. From this judgment he prosecutes this appeal.

The record discloses that Mr. and Mrs. Billings lived in the Oakdale Community a short distance east of McComb, Mississippi. Mr. Billings worked for the Illinois Central Railroad Company in McComb and got off from his work at four o'clock in the afternoon. On January 4, 1962, after picking up her granddaughter, Mrs. Billings arrived home at approximately 4:45 P.M. As was her custom, she blew the horn of her automobile on arrival for Mr. Billings to come get their granddaughter out of the car. There was no response, so she went into the house calling her husband. She found blood on the floor and other evidence of violence, and later found her husband near the back steps of their home. He had been brutally beaten. She called for a doctor and an ambulance to take him to the hospital, but when the ambulance arrived Mr. Billings was dead.

Dr. Thomas P. Wood arrived at the home shortly after the ambulance. He testified that Mr. Billings was dead and had been 'beaten to death.' Mr. Anders from the funeral home was the first to arrive on the scene and he testified that he found Billings dead and called the city police in McComb and asked them to notify the sheriff. His testimony was that there was blood all over the floor, the bathroom door was torn off the hinges and was lying in the tub; the screen window was torn out of the bathroom, and the house 'was a terrible mess.' He further testified that there was a claw hammer on the bottom step just a foot or two from the head of the deceased; that the deceased had five skull fractures, three across the front and two across the back of his head; that he had a stab wound in the right side of his chest under the breast bone into the cavity; and he had a stab wound in the back about four inches long just above the belt level; that he had two lacerations in the cheek which could have been made by a kinfe or some blunt instrument.

Appellant was arrested a short time thereafter and confessed to the murder. In his confession, he stated that about 4:30 P.M. on January 4, 1962, he went through a back bedroom window into the Billings house, and on into the kitchen. No one was at home at that time. He picked up a claw hammer from a kitchen cabinet. About that time Mr. Billings drove up in a pickup truck, came in the house, walked through the living room and dining room and into the kitchen. He took off his coat and then put on some coffee. He, appellant, was standing in the hall near the floor furnace, and when Mr. Billings walked out of the kitchen into the hall he hit him with the hammer. Billings then ran through the living room and dining room into the kitchen where appellant caught him at the back door. The wooden door was open, but the screen door was latched. Appellant again struck Billings with the hammer; Billings got up and ran into the bathroom. He chased him but Billings had locked the bathroom door. Appellant beat the door down with the hammer and saw Billings diving out the bathroom window. Appellant then turned and ran out the back door and caught Billings at the north back corner of the house. Billings had a pocket knife which appellant took away from him, and in so doing cut his left hand. Billings ran to the north front corner of the house, but appellant overtook him from behind and stabbed him one time. Billings fell and while he was down, appellant stabbed him two more times. He dragged Billings back around the house to the north side of the back steps, feet first, then he stood him up and hit him twice with a Coca-Cola bottle. He went back to the north front corner of the house where he had left the hammer, picked it up, and came back to the back steps and hit Billings once more in the head with the hammer. He threw the hammer down on the ground and dragged the body of Billings back to the bottom of the back steps, then left and went to his mother's home.

Appellant signed a confession and it was witnessed by five persons. After prolonged qualifying testimony was introduced, the confession was admitted in evidence as being freely and voluntarily made. The confession is not challenged on this appeal. It is corroborated by the State's witnesses, by the photographs introduced in evidence, and by the fact that Billings' knife was found the next day by an officer under the northeast part of the house where appellant said he had thrown it, and by the testimony of appellant's mother, who testified in his behalf, and said that when he arrived at her home he had his hand cut and it was bleeding; that he changed clothes, and she later identified the clothes appellant had on at the time of the murder.

A suggestion of insanity and motion for transfer of appellant to the Mississippi State Hospital for examination to determine his sanity was filed at the March 1962 term of court, which motion was sustained by the court.

The first assignment of error argued is that the court erred in not sustaining the application for a change of venue, setting out that he could not obtain a fair and impartial trial in Pike County because of the prejudgment of the case and the ill will existing toward appellant, and further...

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16 cases
  • Taylor v. State
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
    • 25 Abril 1996
    ......State, 481 So.2d 793 (Miss.1985), this Court held that an admission by a defendant to his girlfriend of an alleged burglary was a "confession," and constituted direct evidence of the crime such that giving a circumstantial evidence instruction was not required. Id. at 795. See also Anderson v. State, 246 Miss. 821, 828, 152 So.2d 702 (1963). Taylor's alleged confession to Josephine Magee makes a circumstantial evidence instruction inapplicable. . VIII. GRUESOME PHOTOGRAPHS .         The photographs that were objected to were color photographs taken from relatively close ......
  • Johnson v. State
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
    • 25 Septiembre 1985
    ...(Miss.1970). 23. Wilson v. State, 234 So.2d 303 (Miss.1970). 24. Haralson v. State, 318 So.2d 891 (Miss.1975). 25. Anderson v. State, 246 Miss. 821, 152 So.2d 702 (1963). 26. Slyter v. State, 246 Miss. 402, 149 So.2d 489 27. Stokes v. State, 240 Miss. 453, 128 So.2d 341 (1961). 28. Gallego ......
  • Thorson v. State
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
    • 4 Noviembre 2004
    ...direct evidence. See Taylor v. State, 672 So.2d 1246, 1270 (Miss.1996); Mack v. State, 481 So.2d 793 (Miss.1985); Anderson v. State, 246 Miss. 821, 828, 152 So.2d 702 (1963). In the instant case, Thorson's confession was introduced into evidence. Therefore, the trial court did not err in re......
  • Bell v. State
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
    • 24 Mayo 1978
    ...seven of the cases involved murder in which the aggravating circumstance of robbery or burglary was present. Anderson v. State, 246 Miss. 821, 152 So.2d 702 (1963); Simmons v. State, 241 Miss. 481, 130 So.2d 860 (1961); Thompson v. State, 231 Miss. 624, 97 So.2d 227 (1957); Jones v. State, ......
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