Cheeks v. State

• Decision Date: 21 December 1925
• Docket Number: 66
• Citation: 278 S.W. 10,169 Ark. 1192
• Parties: CHEEKS v. STATE
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

278 S.W. 10

169 Ark. 1192

CHEEKS v. STATE

No. 66

Supreme Court of Arkansas

December 21, 1925

Appeal from Lonoke Circuit Court; George W. Clark, Judge; affirmed.

Judgment affirmed.

Reed & Beard and Trimble & Trimble, for appellant.

H W. Applegate, Attorney General, and Darden Moose, Assistant, for appellee.

OPINION

MCCULLOCH, C. J.

Appellant was convicted of assault with intent to kill under an indictment charging him with assaulting and striking Josie Woods with a metal bar with intent to kill and murder her.

Josie Woods is a girl about nineteen years of age, living with her parents at or near the village of Ryan, in Lonoke County. She testified that she had been personally acquainted with appellant, Lee Cheeks, and also with Fred Woosley, two young men in the neighborhood, and that late in the afternoon of Sunday, April 12, 1925, those young men came to her house and invited her to go to church with them at Coy, a village not far distant, and suggested that she get another girl to accompany Woosley; that she assented to this arrangement, and that she and appellant got into a stripped-down Ford car to drive over to Humnoke to see about getting another girl, and left Woosley there near the home of witness to await their return; that she and appellant went on down to Humnoke, and that, instead of stopping there, appellant drove the car on through the town and into the woods, and stopped and got out and invited the witness to get out of the car and help him to fill up the radiator, and that upon her refusal he cursed her; that appellant then got back into the car and they drove back home, and as they approached the home of witness, Woosley stepped out into the road ahead of them and gave a signal, and upon the car being stopped he stepped up on the running board, and as the car moved along, witness insisted upon being permitted to get out of the car, but appellant refused to stop the car for her, and as she turned with one foot upon the running board she was struck over the head, and instantly became unconscious. She testified that she was struck by some one while the car was moving along the road with appellant at the wheel and Woosley standing on the right-hand running board, but that she did not know which one of them it was that struck her. She testified that appellant and Woosley both used rough language towards her when she spoke of getting out of the car. The car passed on, and a little while later other persons found Josie Woods lying unconscious on the roadside, and she was taken to the office of a physician, Dr. Ward, at England, who testified as to the condition of the wound on her head.

The physician testified that Josie Woods had blood all over her head and face and clothing, that there was a gash on her head about three or four inches long, standing open, and that he sewed up the wound and dressed it. He testified that, in his opinion, the wound was made by a blow of some kind, and not from falling out of the car, and that the gash was about the same size of the edge of a metal bar which was found inside of the car by other witnesses. He testified that there were no evidences on her body of scratches or wounds other than the cut on her head. Another physician testified the same as Dr. Ward.

Witness Duncan testified that about eleven o'clock on the night of the injury to Josie Woods he found the car in which the parties had been riding at the back end of a certain drug store, and that he found in the car one of the leaves of an automobile axle spring, which was about twelve inches long, two inches wide and one-fourth of an inch thick, and weighed about three and a half pounds.

According to the testimony, the Ford car in which the parties were riding had a home-made top, which was low and small, not giving sufficient room overhead for a blow to be struck on the head of a person sitting in the car.

Appellant testified that neither he nor Woosley struck Josie Woods, but that she jumped from the car and fell. The theory of appellant is that it was impossible for the girl to have been struck over the head while she was sitting in the car as she claimed.

The testimony shows that appellant and Woosley spent the night at the home of a negro in the neighborhood, and fled the country early the next morning, going first to Jackson, Mississippi, where they enlisted in the army, and thence to North Carolina, where they were apprehended, and brought back to Arkansas for trial.

It is earnestly insisted by counsel for appellant that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the verdict, in that no witness testified directly that either appellant or Woosley struck the blow, or that Josie Woods was struck at all. They contend, as before stated, that she could not have been...