Carney v. Commonwealth

• Decision Date: 27 September 1918
• Parties: CARNEY v. COMMONWEALTH.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

205 S.W. 408

181 Ky. 443

CARNEY v. COMMONWEALTH.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

September 27, 1918

Appeal from Circuit Court, Kenton County.

Patrick Carney, alias Kearney, was convicted of murder, and he appeals. Affirmed.

Lewis F. Brown, of Covington, for appellant.

Chas H. Morris, Atty. Gen., and Stephen L. Blakely, of Covington Commonwealth's Atty., for the Commonwealth.

HURT J.

The appellant, Patrick Carney, alias Kearney, jointly with one James Lawler, was indicted in the Kenton circuit court for the crime of murder, alleged to have been committed by shooting and killing John Rhem. The evidence, almost without contradiction, proves the circumstances of the tragedy to have been as follows: On the night of March 5, 1918, a building and loan association, which has its office at the northwest corner of Twelfth and Russell streets, in the city of Covington, was holding a meeting of its members for the purpose of electing officers. On the corner mentioned and facing Russell street is a building, the front room of which was used as a saloon, and behind the room in which the saloon was kept were a second and third rooms, which composed the offices of the building and loan association. A door opened from the saloon into the second room and a door from the second room into the third room. The building adjoins the street, and doors also open from the street into the second and third rooms, respectively. It seems that the members of the association were required to pay any indebtedness on their part to the association before they were eligible to vote in the election of officers and directors. On the occasion of this meeting, the deceased, John Rhem, was occupying a seat, at a table, in the second room, where he was engaged in receiving the payments of indebtedness to the association by such members as desired to participate in the voting, and in this duty he was assisted by three other members of the association, who also had seats at the table. In the third or rear room, Theodore Kluemper, who was the chief of police of the city, and three other members of the association, were seated at a table receiving and counting the ballots which were cast at the election by the members of the association. While they were thus engaged, the appellant, Carney, alias Kearney, accompanied by either James Lawler or Zeke Moran, came into the room unobserved, and pointing pistols at Kluemper and his companions, demanded money from them. Carney had two pistols and the other party had one. Kluemper, thus taken at a disadvantage, replied that they had no money there, but the money was in the next room. Carney and his companion then proceeded into the room where Rhem and his companions were receiving the money. Presenting their pistols, they demanded the money, when Rhem, who was an aged man of 83 years, put out his hand to take the box in which the money was being stored, and immediately Carney shot him. The ball from the pistol struck and passed through the heart of Rhem, and he died immediately. Andrew Nordmeyer was in the saloon and came from there into the room, where the bandits were, just at that time, when one of them shot him; the ball taking effect in his head and causing his immediate death. As soon as the appellant and his associate left the room where Kluemper was sitting at the table, he secured his revolver from the pocket of his overcoat, which was hanging in the room, and proceeded to follow into the room where Rhem was killed. As soon as he appeared in the door leading into that room, Zeke Moran fired upon him with a revolver. Kluemper returned the fire, and a pistol duel then ensued between him and the bandits, which terminated by Moran being killed and Kluemper receiving a wound in the face. From 15 to 25 shots, in all, were fired. When Kluemper's pistol was empty, one of the two living bandits, either Carney or Lawler, seized the money, amounting to about $1,100, and fied out of the side door into the street, and in the midst of the excitement made their way to an automobile, which was standing in readiness, and escaped to Cincinnati. The robbery and murders occurred shortly before 9 o'clock in the evening, and Carney was arrested by the police of Cincinnati at about 2 o'clock thereafter, and when arrested he had upon his person $164 in currency. Nineteen of the bills were perforated, as though by a bullet. The three bandits Carney, Lawler, and Zeke Moran had secured an automobile and chauffeur to drive it early in the evening in Cincinnati, and had driven near to the place of the murders, and then left the automobile, to await them, while they entered the building and committed the crimes. Before arriving in Cincinnati, on their return, Carney and Lawler left the car and said to the chauffeur that they would see him on the following day.

The only issue, upon the trial, was the identity of Carney with the man who was present in the room and shot and killed Rhem. Neither of the three bandits wore any disguise, and hence it was proven by Kluemper and one other in the room, where they first demanded the money, and by two other persons in the room where Rhem was killed, that the appellant was one of the men who participated in the robbery and the one who shot and killed Rhem. It was proven by the chauffeur that the appellant engaged the car and his services, and all of the actions of the parties in Cincinnati and Covington before the tragedy, and in these statements the chauffeur was corroborated by...