The State v. Robinson

• Decision Date: 09 November 1893
• Citation: 23 S.W. 1066,117 Mo. 649
• Parties: The State v. Robinson, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

23 S.W. 1066

117 Mo. 649

The State v. Robinson, Appellant

Supreme Court of Missouri, Second Division

November 9, 1893

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Appeal from Pettis Criminal Court. -- Hon. J. E. Ryland, Judge.

The defendant, a negro, was convicted of murder in the first degree, the charge being that he killed Johanna Schollman, a white girl, by stabbing her with a knife.

In substance, the salient facts developed at the trial are these: The deceased was employed as a domestic in the family of Mayor Stevens, of Sedalia. The defendant was also in the employ of Mayor Stevens, and slept in a room at the barn. On the evening of October 24, 1892, which was Sunday, the deceased left Mayor Stevens' house and went to Mr Miller's, a place she was accustomed to visit, which was on the corner of Grand avenue and Twenty-fifth street. She arrived there between six and seven o'clock, having in her hand a little bundle which she said contained her night gown. She took supper there; said she expected some one to call for her, and that she was going out to see relatives next day in Benton county. She seemed to feel uneasy. Pretty soon the one who was to come for her came, and called out her name at the door, (who it was Mrs. Miller did not know) and she got into a buggy with the unknown man whom Mrs. Miller did not see, and rode off with him; this was about seven o'clock. At ten o'clock on the same evening, some unknown person called at Miller's for deceased, by calling her name at the door, but no one responded to this call.

A little after seven o'clock the defendant obtained a buggy from Field's livery stable, drove off in a few minutes and about nine o'clock, when he returned the buggy, the horse was cool, did not seem to have been driven hard nor far, and though the streets were muddy that afternoon, the horse was not muddy. When defendant returned the buggy, he left therein a bundle, of which more hereafter. About eleven o'clock that night defendant returned to Mayor Stevens' barn, where he slept. Another negro, Swepstone was in the bed, having arrived something like half an hour before. When defendant came in he lit his pipe and sat there smoking, but when he went to bed, his companion, who meanwhile had fallen asleep, did not know. Defendant was in bed, however, the next morning, and got up by six o'clock and started out on horse back and came back from town bringing a piece of meat for the family and took it to the house. That morning early he had also called by Field's livery stable and asked for a small bundle which he said he had left in the buggy the night before. This being given him, he rode off with it.

On that same morning, Monday, October 25, at an early hour, the body of deceased was discovered near the corner of Seventeenth and Moniteau streets. The deceased had apparently received the fatal wound which was a puncture of the interior jugular vein on the left side of the neck, and she had apparently been dragged by the heels, as shown by the disarranged condition of her clothing and the depression of the weeds, from that place which gave indications of a struggle, some sixty feet to where she was found on her back at the corner of the hedge. On her right jaw there was a well marked bruise of some kind. The punctured wound had the appearance of having been made by a pen knife. Dr. Muehl, the coroner, said: "I saw some marks where the body was lying and others in the vicinity; I saw a path where the body had been dragged, then went back to where originally the struggle evidently took place, at the southwest corner of the lot of the hedge there on Moniteau street and there was a clot of blood there where the woman had probably been knocked down there and dragged to the place where we found her. This trail was continuous from where it had taken place to where she was, the blood had come from the wound, for the side of the face and neck was also covered with blood which came from the wound itself, and there was more or less hemorrhage from the nostrils from the blow or shock." On the hedge and on the weeds there were bits of fur which were identical with that on the jacket of deceased, and which could be easily traced along the path where the body had apparently been dragged. A knife was also found in the field inside the hedge, and on the open blade of the knife was blood, and fur precisely like that with which the cloak of deceased was trimmed. The sexual organs gave tokens, as testified by one of the physicians, that an outrage had perhaps been perpetrated on the deceased prior to her death. One of the witnesses thought that the body of the deceased had been brought from a distance and then dumped down where found, but the other witnesses thought as did Dr. Muehl. That physician also stated that in case of a punctured wound, such as borne by deceased, that the blood does not spurt out, but seeps, goes slowly, and that it might take several hours between receiving such a punctured wound and the occurrence of death. He was also of opinion that the deceased had been dead four or five hours, though he admitted it might have been longer; could not say exactly. He saw the body between eight and nine o'clock in the morning. Dr. Muehl also stated that he did not think that loss of blood alone produced the death of the deceased, but was also caused by the blow, the shock, hemorrhage and fright.

There was also testimony in behalf of defendant, to the effect that deceased was seen between seven and nine o'clock on the evening of the twenty-fourth of October with a white man in a restaurant at Sedalia, and that defendant came into DeJarnett's restaurant in that city about nine o'clock that evening and bought a piece of chicken.

Suspicion was directed towards defendant by testimony elicited at the coroner's inquest and defendant was arrested and committed to the Pettis county jail. While there, Hyatt having been present at that inquest, asked defendant what had become of the bundle which defendant had left in the buggy, and he told Hyatt that it was only some tobacco which he had bought of Gottschalk that Sunday evening, just after he got into the buggy he had hired of Field. Asked by Hyatt what he had done with the overcoat he had worn that evening, describing it, he answered he did not wear such an overcoat, but that he wore a brown overcoat trimmed with fur which Hyatt would find behind the door in his room, which Hyatt did; but on looking between the mattresses of defendant's bed, he found the light overcoat which he had described to defendant, and which was abundantly shown to have been defendant's, hidden between the mattresses on defendant's bed, and spotted with what appeared to be fresh blood stains. On Tuesday after the homicide, Oliver, working for Mayor Stevens, found under a manure pile at the south side of the barn, a night gown, pocket comb and pocket book shown to be those of the deceased girl. Gottschalk testified that he never sold defendant any tobacco on the Sunday evening mentioned, and never kept his store open of a Sunday. Several witnesses testified to defendant's being in the vicinity of where the crime was committed on the night of its commission.

Shortly after defendant's being incarcerated in jail, the sheriff became alarmed at the threats of mob violence, and so he spirited defendant away on a midnight train and took him to California. Defendant was aware of the reason for which he was being taken away at that time and seemed nervous and frightened. On the way down there, the sheriff got into conversation with defendant during which he said to him: "Dick we want to know the facts in this case; it will be better to tell the truth about this matter; I think it will be a relief to you if you will simply state them, and relieve your mind and conscience of them." And the sheriff further stated to him, "Whatever you say to me will probably be used against you in evidence." But defendant declined to make any statement then; but he told the sheriff that "if he would come back the next day or later, that he would talk to him about the matter mentioned, that he didn't feel like talking that night," etc. On the next day the sheriff returned and defendant was told that some things had been found in Stevens' barn which might be used as evidence in the case, and he was again warned by the sheriff that any statement he might make, etc. Thereupon defendant made the following confession which, being reduced to writing, was signed by him, which was read in evidence.

California, Mo., October 26, 1892.

Hannah Schollman left Mr. Stevens' house about five o'clock Sunday eve last to go to Mr. Miller's, on corner of Wilkerson and Grand Avenue. The next time I seen her I met her on the north side of street near Prospect school house about 8:30 P. M., we walked together from Second to Grand Avenue, from there to Broadway, then to Moniteau, then direct south to Hunnefelts', and stopped at gate and talked? She quarreled with me about Taylor Williams, she said she had a notion to cut my throat, she drew a knife to cut my throat and I knocked her down with my fist; she got up on her feet and she struck at me with the knife and I grabbed the knife and I knocked her down the second time; she said 'you son of a bitch, I am going to kill you, or I will have it done;' she got up again and I threw her down and sat down by her side; I said 'Hannah, what do you mean?' she said, 'one of us has got to die tonight,' I told her to go into the house (that is her uncle's house). I gave her back the knife on the south side of the hedge near middle of the street, I then started to go home, she said 'if you will come back I will behave myself and go into the house, I just want to speak to you one minute,' I went back to her again, and she...