Collins v. Commonwealth
| Decision Date | 15 January 1929 |
| Parties | COLLINS v. COMMONWEALTH. |
| Court | Kentucky Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Perry County.
Willie Collins was convicted of manslaughter, and he appeals. Reversed and remanded.
Faulkner & Faulkner, of Hazard, for appellant.
J. W Cammack, Atty. Gen., and Samuel B. Kirby, Jr., Asst. Atty Gen., for the Commonwealth.
Willie Collins was indicted for the murder of Otis Stout. On the trial of the case he was found guilty of manslaughter, and his punishment fixed at 21 years' imprisonment. He appeals.
There is a coal camp in Perry county about a mile below the town of Krypton. Willie Collins lived there with his wife and two children. His father-in-law and his wife occupied the house with them. About 2 o'clock on the day in question Otis Stout appeared at the store of Clark Campbell at Krypton. He had whisky with him, and offered Campbell some. Campbell did not take any, and he then went from the store to the home of Jim Gilkerson. Jim's wife, Lil Gilkerson, was there, but Jim was away. He stayed there two or three hours with her drinking. About dark he and she started down to the coal camp. When they got there, she undertook to call her father over the river to come for her, but she could not make him hear. She then went to the home of Collins, which was near by. A few minutes after she came in Stout followed her into the house. She says that he knocked, and that Mrs. Collins let him in and gave him a chair; that he sat down in the chair, put his hat on his knee, and soon fell asleep. Mrs. Gilkerson left. Mrs. Collins and her mother followed her, and some minutes later Willie Collins, who had gone out to buy some groceries, came in with the groceries. One witness for the commonwealth heard him say this as he entered: "Wake up, buddy." The next thing was what one witness describes as a noise and another as a "lumberment." This was followed by four shots of a pistol. Collins then went to a neighboring house and told them that he had killed Stout. They went to the house and found the chair turned over and Stout lying on the floor next to the bed, dead.
The proof for the commonwealth was to the effect that there were four wounds in Stout's head, two entering at the back of the skull and coming out at the mouth; two in the front of the head, which did not come out. Nobody testified as to what took place in the house, except Collins. He said that when he came in he asked Stout, "Where are the folks?" that Stout then arose with the chair and struck him with it; that Stout then fell over on the floor, and reached for his pistol, saying: "Jim, you S. B., I am going to kill you," and, when he had his pistol about half out of his pocket, Collins drew his pistol and shot four times, two of the balls striking Stout in the head in front and coming out at the back of his head. The proof by Mrs. Collins and her mother was, in substance, that Stout opened the door and walked in without being invited at all or their knowing that he was there; that then he took the seat in front of the fire, saying nothing, and that they became afraid of him, and the mother testifies that, while he was sitting there, she went out and came back up on the porch for something. and he then snapped his pistol at her. She told Mrs. Gilkerson that she was not going to remain there with that man, and that Mrs. Gilkerson said:
There was other evidence tending to show that Mrs. Gilkerson and Stout were both drinking, and that as they came along the railroad from Krypton she had her arm around him. That he was very drunk is undisputed. Collins, as the proof for him shows, did not know Stout; there was no bad feeling between them. There had never been any trouble between them in any way. Stout's pistol was sticking out of his pocket about half drawn when other persons entered the room, and the chair was lying on the floor.
The commonwealth proved by its witnesses that, when Collins got to the...
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