Wilson v. State
| Citation | 234 So.2d 303 |
| Decision Date | 20 April 1970 |
| Docket Number | No. 45711,45711 |
| Parties | Clifford WILSON v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi |
Waller & Fox, Jackson, for appellant.
A. F. Summer, Atty. Gen., by Guy N. Rogers, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Wade H. Creekmore, Jr. and James H. Creekmore, Sp. Asst. Attys. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
Clifford Wilson was tried in the Circuit Court of Forrest County for the murder of Vernon Dahmer. He was found guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the state penitentiary. He appeals from this judgment. We affirm.
Vernon Dahmer lived with his wife and three children in a rural community in Forrest County. In close proximity to his residence there was situated a small store owned by Dahmer, but occupied and operated by an elderly aunt.
In the early hours, about 2:00 a.m., of January 10, 1966, the Dahmers were sleeping in their residence. The widow of Dahmer testified that she was awakened by the sound of a car horn and gunshots coming into the house. Immediately thereafter she heard a window break and observed that the front portion of the house was on fire. She awakened her husband who helped her and the children out of the house and then returned the gunfire of the attackers.
The assailants departed shortly thereafter leaving the house and the store in flames, both of which were destroyed. Dahmer received burns in the fire from which he died later in the day.
T. Webber Rogers, a witness for the State, testified that he became a member of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1965. He testified that the defendant Wilson was a member of the Klan and that he had attended Klan meetings with him, one of which was in the early part of December preceding the burning of Dahmer's property in January 1966. He testified that at this meeting the Dahmer project was mentioned in the presence and in the presence of Wilson by Cecil Sessum, the and '4' which were stated to mean "3' is the number that's given on fire, and '4' is death.' He stated that due to the lack of members in attendance the meeting was brief and soon adjourned.
Rogers further testified that the made a 'dry run' by the Dahmer home and store with Cecil Sessum and Henry DeBoxtel, members of the Klan, but that he was not present the morning they were burned. He did not know whether Wilson made this 'dry run,' testifying that Wilson was not in the car with him.
The State's next witness was Billy Roy Pitts who was in the custody of a United States marshal at the time of the trial. As a preface to his evidence Pitts testified upon interrogation that he was a former member of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and that he had pled guilty to the murder of Vernon Dahmer and to the arson of his property; that he had been convicted of kidnapping in the Circuit Court of Jackson County and that he had been convicted in the Federal District Court on a charge of conspiracy arising from the Dahmer matter. Additionally, he had been convicted of grand larceny which was unrelated to the Klan activities. In the kidnapping trial, as well as in testimony given to a Jones County grand jury, the witness testified that he had no knowledge of the Dahmer project. He admitted on cross-examination that he had publicly stated to a church congregation, as well as to other public assemblies, that he had no knowledge of the Dahmer matter. He is, therefore, a confessed liar. In explanation of his repudiation of the former statements Pitts testified that upon joining the Klan he took an oath to obey all the laws thereof and that if any law was broken, it could be punishable by death. For this reason when he was ordered by Sam Bowers, the Imperial Wizard of the Klan, to deny publicly any knowledge of the affair in church and at subsequent public meetings, he did so.
The witness identified Wilson as an acquaintance and as a member of the Klan. Wilson was designated the 'county investigator' whose duty it was to investigate the various projects of the Klavern for approval or disapproval.
The cogent portion of this witness's testimony is that on the night in question Sessum came to Pitts' home and directed him to obtain a gun and come with him. The witness did so and shortly thereafter joined a group of heavily armed Klansmen at the home of Sessum. Ammunition was distributed among the members and a number of plastic jugs were filled with gasoline. The men then left to accomplish their purpose of arson and murder. Pitts testified he traveled from this rendezvous to the Dahmer property in the blue Pontiac automobile of Wilson, the appellant. The automobile was driven by Wilson and the occupants other than the witness were Cecil Sessum and Bill Smith. The other automobile used on the project was a light-colored Ford. It was occupied by Henry DeBoxtel, Charles Nobles, Frank Lyons, and Lester Thornton and followed the car of Wilson.
Pitts explained that his duty in the project was to guard Sessum whose assignment was to throw gasoline into the house and ignite it after the 'picture window' in the front of the home was shot out. Wilson was instructed by Sessum '* * * to get the vehicles under the carport of the Vernon Dahmer home, to put Molotov cocktails in them and shoot holes in the gas tanks and try to ignite the gas in the gas tanks of the vehicles.' The automobiles first passed the property reconnoitering, returned, and the men got out and began firing their guns into the home. The action was described by the witness as follows:
Q. All right. You have your instructions now and your equipment. After you got your instructions, then what happened?
A. We went to the Vernon Dahmer home in Cliff Wilson's car and Henry DeBoxtel followed in the Ford car with his men, and as we turned into the driveway of the Vernon Dahmer house I looked back and saw that the Ford car turned in toward the store. It was close by the house.
Q. All right.
A. Then we all jumped out of the car real quick, out of the Cliff Wilson car and Bill Smith started shooting the picture window out of the house, out of the Vernon Dahmer home. Cecil Sessum took the jugs of gasoline and I ran with him to the front of the house. As I was running toward the front of the house Cliff Wilson was running toward the carport of the house.
Q. What did he have?
A. He had two jugs of gasoline, a shotgun and a pistol.
Q. All right, and he was to take care of the cars?
A. Yes, Sir.
Q. All right. Then what happened there in front of the house?
A. Bill Smith had shot the window out in front of the house. Cecil Sessum uncapped the jugs of gasoline and took a pocket knife from his pocket and jobbed holes in the top of some of the jugs and he threw the jugs into the living room of the house, or in what I believed was the living room of the house.
Q. Did he throw them where this window had been?
A. Yes, Sir, and I had crotched down in front of the house next to the house while he was throwing the jugs of gasoline into the house. He had a gasoline soaked rag wrapped around a forked stick that he took and lit it, lit this torch that he had made, and throwed it into the house and ignited the gasoline.
Q. What happened when he threw that torch in there after that gasoline?
A. Huge flames of fire began roaring through the house.
Q. And then what happened, Pitts?
A. Then we ran back to the car and there was continuous shooting going on.
Q. Was the Defendant Cliff Wilson, there?
A. He was.
Q. Did it happen in his presence?
A. It did.
As mentioned, the residence and store were totally destroyed.
The record reflects by the testimony of Pitts that the conspirators had agreed to leave the lights of their automobiles off until they departed, but someone in the Ford automobile turned the headlights on, whereupon some of the members fired upon it, deflating two of the tires. This automobile was later abandoned, all of the participants making their getaway in the automobile of Wilson. At this time Pitts discovered that he had lost his pistol at the scene of the fire and requested they return for it. This request was declined, however, as being too dangerous. The participants returned to the home of Sessum before disbanding. While there, Sessum directed DeBoxtel, in the presence of Cliff Wilson and the witness, to go to the Masonite plant and get word to Travis Giles, the owner of the abandoned automobile, to report it stolen the next morning since it had to be left on the side road.
The next witness for the State was J. B. Smith, a resident of the same community as Dahmer. He stated that he was awakened during the early hours of January 10 by an outside noise near his residence and that he went out to investigate the possibility that some of his cattle had escaped. While outside and near the road, he observed a light-colored car followed by a light blue car driving in the direction of the Dahmer home. It was his further testimony that later in the morning as he departed his home for a hunt, that he passed a light blue automobile parked on the east side of the road facing in the opposite direction from the Dahmer home. He stated that the car was unoccupied, but had the appearance of having been recently abandoned as it was still hot and steaming and that it had a flat tire.
The abandoned automobile was discovered the next day and identified as belonging to Travis Giles. A burned pistol later identified as belonging to Pitts was found at the scene. Dahmer's automobile was consumed by fire, but his truck which was removed from the carport during the fire was intact. Upon examination of the truck it was discovered that the windshield and the rear window had been shot out; there were bullet holes in the lower back portion of the cab, and a plastic jug containing gasoline was in the bed of the truck. According to the testimony of Dahmer's widow this jug was not in the truck the preceding evening.
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